Yesterday I finished a four-part memoir writing class. When I saw it was being offered, I thought, 'Well, now's not really a good time,' but I was so wrong. Now was and is the perfect time to do anything that's tugging at your heart. Not only did I learn a lot about writing, but the class also taught me several life takeaways. Y'all ready for this? *cue Jock Jams*
When I walked into the first session, I was a little anxious. Upon scanning the room, I saw people of various ages and backgrounds, none of whom appeared to "match" me, but I knew we had one thing in common: an interest in writing our story. However, as the weeks went on and people shared their writings, I realized that I could relate to every single person in the room. It reminded me that, if we dig beyond the surface, we'll unearth connections in [maybe previously] unexpected places. Sometimes our heart perceives things our eyes can't see.
We also discussed several different writing prompts, one being a list of 50 questions for parents to ask their children rather than "How was your day?" My favorite item on the list was this one: How did someone fill your bucket today? Whose bucket did you fill? On that particular day, my bucket was filled because I'd walked into class to discover the instructor wearing a Share Love, That's All shirt. That simple choice showed me that she supported me, a feeling I needed after being vulnerable the previous session. Moving forward, I want to put greater emphasis on bucket-filling - for others and myself. Right now my bucket is filled because a long-time friend, Sarah Whiddon, is walking for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation on Saturday with her team, Drew's Crew Two. She has been leading the team for many, many years now; the photo included in this post was from 2013.
Finally, we talked about the concept of parallax. Often used in science-y things, parallax is the idea that an object may not appear the same when viewed from different lines of sight. We discussed parallax in terms of life events and how, for example, at a future point in time, we may perceive an event in a different way than we did at the time it occurred. Ramon starts another round of chemo on Monday, and I look forward to parallaxing(!) the heck out of this leukemia. Though it has been a challenging four months, I am confident that there will be a day (hopefully soon) when we solely view this as one of the things that enhanced our appreciation for life.
Oh my memoir! We're grateful for your ongoing support.