WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL THESE YEARS?

Something about a new year always makes me look back--kinda like a rear-view mirror gander at what's back there, you know, behind me, down the road, in the distance.

     As an aside: in my search for clip art on "looking back," most of the images were about NOT looking back. My question is: Why the heck not??

A few years ago I came across an idea that might be fun for us to do--if I could remember where and when I learned about it, I'd give credit to the person who first suggested it. But for now, just know that I didn't invent this, just, um, borrowed it.

It's a simple little exercise; goes like this:

• think back over your life in 10-year increments
• was there anything especially significant during that decade?
• if so, write it down
• go on to the next decade
• when you're finished, read what you wrote

When I first did this practice, I realized I wrote down too much detail. Really? It was amazing to me that I could remember all that stuff. But those were the more recent periods. Going farther back--'way back--I had little detail, but I did have memories. Outstanding events that stood up and waved, yelling, "Me! Me!"

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I'll give you a few of my own journey high points to get you started. Ready?

• birth to age 10 - parents divorced, mother remarried; stepsister came to live with us one year; had measles and scarlet fever, both the same spring--started drawing while recuperating.
• teen years - 11-20 - kept moving (mother and stepfather always looking for better jobs); mother died; started college; got married, had my first child.
• twenties - had three more children; beloved mother-in-law died; returned to college; met some people who became lifelong friends.
• thirties - finished my degree; my little family moved to the country to live in an old farm house (could be described as dilapidated); felt odd not going to school so returned to work on my Master's Degree; tried writing but felt I didn't know how to write a story; got a job in a law office.
• forties - life unravelled--my divorce, children's marriages; became a grandmother; law office job eventually upgraded to paralegal.
• fifties - discovered some like-minded writers who wanted to meet regularly (another lifelong friendship discovered); learned to  make quilts; health began hitting speed bumps.
• sixties - discovered yoga as a gentle practice for heart patients who can't do strenuous exercise; played the organ at a few churches for several years; changed churches, made new friends; retired from my job.
• seventies - continued writing; began a blog in 2013; traveled a bit, but finally gave that up.
• eighties - where I am now--writing, painting, sometimes sewing. COVID made a huge difference in "life as we knew it" and my two experiences with that virus have impacted my own ability to function.

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Each decade went off in a different direction, it seems. Did I learn anything from all that change? No doubt I did. Did I know the significance of what happened at the time? Heck, no! Hindsight is one of the best weapons for surviving--look in the rearview mirror, see where you've been, and later on, figure out if it made a difference. I'll wager it did.

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Good luck with your decade-dive. If you're so inclined, you may get some ideas for memoirs. You don't have to publish them, just write them for your kids and grandkids. Your family members may not have a clue where you came from, or what you had to do to stay alive, or how you got to be the wonderful person you are. But they deserve to!

'Til next time,

Blessings,

Thursday's Child