Prompted Memory: Creating a Written Legacy

Elle Dooley

This was originally planned as an event in the Garden Calendar. I made a few changes in order to present it here in the Word of the Week. This week, if you so choose, the final words will be yours, based on following these prompts. You’ll need a quiet place, a cherished object for centering yourself, your journal and your favorite writing implement.

What we create – or what we leave - by way of legacy can be finished work, accomplishments, memories, connections with family and friends. Many of us dream of writing a memoir, a daunting task unless you’re a professional writer.

I invite you to replace thoughts of the 300-page biography with a simple practice of capturing your life through prompts. A prompt can open memories; memories may lead to more memories or to further reflection. We choose what to explore more deeply- it’s our choice to leave things in an unexamined state.

In preparation: when we evoke memory, we travel in time and untether a bit. It’s important that we’re able to return to center. Look around the comfortable space you’re in and find an object that will support you in doing this; bring it close to you. I invite you to note this object in your journal or make a quick sketch.

In this practice, we use prompts to evoke our memories. We quickly write down what comes to mind, not writing into these just yet – and maybe never. Capturing what is there for us now.

These are the prompts I’ve created for you. For each prompt, spend about 5 minutes creating a list of what comes from your life’s memories. Words, phrases, maybe a little more. The emphasis is on capturing freely flowing thoughts rather than on “writing”

THE PROMPTS

I started out and then…

It was midnight

It just felt so good

The summer I was seventeen

Stunned into silence

There was magic all around

There was a time when it seemed as if everything was broken

It all came together in that moment

How I am old

The fire inside

 By responding to what you’ve been prompted to remember, you now have moments of your life captured in writing. The writing may be complete, or simply complete for now. What invites further remembrance, and writing, is up to you.

Some simple ideas for writing through:

                Create your own prompt journal for a future writing session! Save an inspiring line of poetry or a line in a book you are reading. Listen for evocative lines in everyday conversation.

                Pull a line from the response to each prompt to create a poem or prose piece. An interesting sequence is line 1 from the first, line 2 from the second, line 3 from the third and so on.

                Let your own words and memories spark other creative practices, i.e. a collage, a sketch, some needlework. If memories of food show up, consider spending time in the kitchen recreating a favorite dish. Gather beloved items around you as an alter or shrine to a certain memory, especially that of a loved one or ancestor.

See which of these prompted pieces invites you to expand on the memory; write until you feel you’ve extracted all the details you can. If you want to capture your thoughts or reflections, do that too. It can be now, or later. Completely up to you.

Love your life. Love your journey.

xoxo

Elle