Discover treasures within your Thanksgiving memories

Have you written a story about Christmas for your memoir?

If so, send me your vignette

between now and December 10

and I’ll select one to publish here

the week before Christmas.

See all the details in my November 12 post at this link:

http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/11/send-me-your-christmas-vignettes.html

This Thanksgiving, take a fresh look at your traditions and ask yourself why they are special.

Have your family traditions evolved since you were a child? What old traditions have you let go? What new traditions have you established? Why? How has it changed your family dynamic?

Note the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feels of Thanksgiving and find descriptive, fresh words for them.

Which Thanksgiving memories stand out? Do you know why?

Which people played the biggest roles in your past Thanksgivings? Why? How?

“Long before I wrote stories, I listened for stories.”

(Eudora Welty, American writer)

In coming days—while you unload the dishwasher, rake leaves, build a fire in the fireplace, or sit around your Thanksgiving table—listen for stories: Notice what comes to mind about Thanksgivings past. Spend five minutes jotting down a few notes.

Come back to your notes after Christmas, when your schedule calms down, and start your rough draft. Take time to explore what God was doing in and for and through you in past Thanksgivings. Was He changing you? Teaching you? Preparing you for something down the road? What did He teach you about Himself and His blessings?

Search for deeper lessons that might be hiding within your memories. Retrospection, reflection, examining—these are all part of memoir.

What stories would bless your kids, grandkids, family, and friends? Write those stories!

Next time I’ll share a few of my Thanksgiving memories with you, including one blessing I didn’t recognize until this week—because I took time to listen and reflect on it.

Have a happy, blessed Thanksgiving.