Writing for Our Families, Ourselves and Others

Last Sunday the Senior Memoir course I've attended for the past year held a reading at the Jewish Community Center.  We had expected to read our entire 1500 word pieces but we were told that each of us could read for three minutes.  "Bummer," I thought.  But three minutes turned out to be perfect.  Some of the pieces were humorous, some were bittersweet, some filled with courage.  Our wonderful instructor, Cate Weiss Orcutt, introduced the program.  We were all touched by her statement that she'd learned so much from us.  We made Cait a "word cloud."  Each of us contributed 10 words describing her and they became a lovely heart shape on a  card that we presented to her at the end of the program.

This course has been an inspiration for me.  I'd gotten lazy about writing but weekly prompts and one workshop essay made me write continuously.  

I'm going to be doing a Legacy Letter course at an independent living facility next month, and I hope the attendees will be inspired to write.  If you want to know more about Legacy Letters, check out celebrationsoflife.net You don't have to be a senior to write one of these.  You might want to write to your parents, your child upon his/her graduation or wedding, to a teacher or a mentor or a special friend.  Legacy letters can express gratitude forgiveness, hopes, values--anything important to you.  You might read "The Forever Letter" for ideas.  You can find this book on Amazon.  The only hard and fast rule about writing Legacy Letters if to write from your heart.