...of thoughts, feelings and memories. “ONE WORD" is your personal Weekly helper to spark and start your weekly personal story.
Here's how it's worked for others. One gentleman named Max received his word of the week, it was a less common word but after a short reflection on it he knew of a story and experience with his Dad. This experience was so buried and hidden he wonders if it would have ever been found without the prompt. We invite you every week to accept the invitation and think of the word and commit to write at least a paragraph of what that word means to you and the flavor of the story that goes with it. Don't worry about getting everything perfect just start and share feelings and tactile details if you have them. Realize lots of little stories will help leave the personal history that will help others, and help them know you.
Don’t worry or lose heart even if a word doesn’t come really easy. You can take the whole week and think, remember and write. If you’ve never heard the word used, take the week to think about it, then write where those thoughts took you and what it helped you to remember. We are only committing to 1 Word, 1 paragraph, per week. You may add more but don’t worry we are just committing to get started. Be sure each week to write about your ONE WORD before the next word is released (the following Monday).
Now let's get back to Max his word was "Deliberate” (kinda unusual hu?) Well the thoughts it resurrected were of a night when he was about 13 years old. It was a long looked forward to adventure (like a year). He recalled how his Dad had deliberately laid out each item needed, organized, cleaned, polished and sharpened. He recalled checking its function and then repacking it all in preparation for the very early morning start of the adventure. He could recall the look and smell of this Dad’s old field jacket (a bouquet of musty, moth ball and cedar) the look feel and color of his own silver backpack. It brought a flashback, of hiking up a mountain trail before the sun had any glimmer of light. It was cold and so scary but so exciting too. Walking up the mountain the weather went from bitterly cold to a very warm, oppressively sunny day. His recollection included the flavor of foods on the adventure (mushy apple and a classic Hersey’s chocolate bar) and the smell of decomposing leaves blanketing the forest.
Every memory built on a previous memory. As you begin your journey, you’re also likely to find a memory that connects to another memory like large rocks crossing a stream. Once you find the first recollection you’ll begin to see the next, and then the next so please keep on stepping forward.
Deliberate, caused thought of the meticulousness attention to detail and making sure everything was ready for when it was needed. What a great starting point to launch his mini story with ONE WORD.