We all feel our memories are fading. But that simply isn't how memory works.
From an early age, our memories are selectively taking things from the 'active' file, shifting them to the 'for later' file, and sneakily moving details to the permanent 'archive' from where we fear we will never retrieve them.
I've got news for you - the memories are there.
I like to think of my memory as a pump that just needs a little priming to get working when the next season of work comes around. Give it a little water, or in this case word-fuel, and watch the machinery grind its way out of the dusty corner of the shed where it got tossed ten years ago.
The concept of "cues" that I use in my memoir inspiration work at www.pattimhall.com developed organically from working with hundreds of people in classes and groups, almost all of whom told me that they had forgotten more than they remembered on the first day we worked together. They changed their tune by the end of a couple of months of sessions with pens poised over the page!
Let me tell you a little story, and then see for yourself if this cue works to prime your memory pump.
I witnessed a juicy writing cue remind aspiring memoirist Mary Lou about her passion for making snow angels as a child. (You southerners and coastal Californians might have to look this one up!) She said she couldn't remember anything about those years. I said, "remember the sensation, the sound, the stars in the sky and the flakes of snow falling on your face..." and she was writing. Mary Lou wrote six pages about her snow angels, her grandkid's snow angels, their snowsuits, the hill at the side of their house, her doubled up hand-knit mittens and the long walk to school.... The same thing happened recently when I reminded a writer who was feeling a little stuck that she could try writing the smell of her mother's kitchen. A chapter later she had crafted a loving piece about her mother's biscuits, the family recipes and the legacy of women in her family.
Those were not topics that either person had thought of in, maybe, decades. They also weren't topics either of them thought would turn into favoritesin their writing group. But they did. Mary Lou went on to complete a full length memoir and one little memory tugging cue started it all.
Write to prime the pump that is your memory.
I promise, it works.
Try this:
I post #InspiringMoments writing cues all over my social media. Try one, or ten, and let me know how they work to get your rusty pump up and running.
The world is waiting to hear your story. Your memories are right where you left them.