Scary Experiences

Here's another question for your life story:

What was the scariest experience you remember?

All of us have been scared.  Sometimes we found out there was nothing to be scared of.  Sometimes there really was something to be scared of.  Sometimes we were saved from what we were scared of.  Sometimes we had to deal with what scared us even though it was very difficult.

As you think about the scariest experiences you have had, you will probably come up with many stories you can write down.  Start writing them down and you will add a lot to your life story.

Every year when I went back to school, I had to deal with fear about going down the big slippery slide again.  After not going down the slide during the summer while school was out, I had a hard time trying to go down it again.  Sometimes I would climb up the steps all the way to the top, then look down the slide and quickly back down the steps.  Unfortunately sometimes someone would be climbing the steps behind me.  They didn't want to back down, so they would tell me to just slide down, that it would be okay.  Finally after I did slide down it wasn't so scary any more and I could slide down again and again. 


I learned that somethings you should be scared of and be cautious in what you are doing.  I remember a confrontation my dad had with a badger.  I remember the teeth and the claws and how ferocious that badger was.  I learned you never want to encounter a badger without being prepared to protect yourself.

Lightning is something I still find scary.  I have learned that if you get in a safe place lightning doesn't have to be so scary, though I still am cautious when there is lightning.

NOAA Photo Library, NOAA Central Library; OAR/ERL/National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) 


Write your scary experiences down and add a lot to your life story.

What is Your Favorite Hobby?

Here's another question for your story:

What is your favorite hobby?

Over the course of a lifetime one can have many hobbies.  Your hobbies add a lot to your life.  Sometimes hobbies can be developed into something profitable, but always hobbies add enjoyment and fun to life.  Some people become very proficient in their hobby, while others just learn enough to enjoy doing it.  Some hobbies will be ongoing throughout life.  Others will be dabbled in for a day, a week, a month or a year and then not returned to.  
You can start writing about your hobbies by writing about your favorite hobby currently.  What do you like to spend time doing?  Take pictures of your hobby.  Include what you have learned from the hobby.  Write the instructions of how to do what you do for your hobby.  Give any tips and advice.  This may be very valuable to someone in the future.
If your hobby is cooking, you can take pictures of the foods you cook.  You can write down the recipes.  You can share any tips you've learned to make it easier to prepare.  You can share any mistakes you've made and how to avoid making them.  Some day one of your children or grandchildren may read your story and find the recipe for one of their favorite dishes from childhood.  They will be grateful you shared the recipe so they can recreate that memorable food.
You can write more about your hobbies.  Write about the ones that you spend hours doing.  Write about the ones you only did for a short while.  Write about the ones you didn't like and don't want to do again.  
Your hobbies will add a great deal to your story and will make it much more interesting and enjoyable to read.
One of my favorite hobbies right now is fractal art.  I enjoy creating fractal art on my computer.  Following is an example of a fractal art design I created.
  

Four Leaf Clover Fractal Art by storykeeper
make money as an artist using Zazzle.

Love Story

Another question for your life story:

What is one of the love stories from your life?

Everyone has a love story in their life.  Sometimes the love story is sad or even tragic.  One of my uncles never married because his fiance died before they were married.  Sometimes it is unusual and has a different twist to it.  My parents almost didn't get together.  My dad teased my mom and she didn't like him, but a ride in a rumble seat started their romance.  Sometimes it is pretty much an ordinary love story.  Boy and girl meet.  Boy asks girl out.  They date many times, become great friends, fall in love, get married, raise a family and live many years together.  But most love stories have a lot of interesting details.  

Love Story Poster by storykeeper
Find another fine art reprint

Other love stories can be about the love of a parent for a child, the love of a child for a parent, the love of two friends, or the love of a pet cat or dog.  Your life is probably filled with several love stories.  Write down the stories about those you love and why you love them.  Your love story will add a great deal to your life story.

What Failures Have You Had in Your Life?

Here's another question for your life story:

What failures have you had in your life?

This seems like a negative subject to write about, but if you could share what you learned from your failures with others wouldn't it be worthwhile to write about your failures. Sometimes we think everyone else's life is going well.  They have a nice home and a beautiful car and a wonderful family.  At Christmas I get a few family newsletters from friends who live far away that I don't get to see any more.  They describe the family vacation, the successes of their children and the things their family has accomplished in the last year.  When my own family is struggling with financial problems, underemployment and unemployment, it can be discouraging to hear about how well others are doing.  

When I go to visit someone else and they have a pile of laundry on the couch waiting to be folded, dirty dishes in the sink waiting to be washed, and books or papers scattered across tables waiting to be read or put away, I am encouraged because someone else has a challenge getting everything done too.  A spotlessly clean house makes me feel discouraged because my house never looks like that.  My life doesn't go perfectly so it is good to know that others don't have perfect lives either.  

When writing your life story, don't make it sound too perfect.  Share the failures, the disappointments, the discouragements; but also share what was learned and how you coped with it.  When others are struggling, they may find hope in what you have written that somehow they can make it through their challenge too.

Give the Gift of Your Family Story

Giving gifts can be challenging when money is tight.  You want to make sure you give a gift that will be useful and appreciated.  Giving a gift that isn't needed and won't be used is no fun for the giver or the receiver.  Of course, just the fact that someone wanted to give a gift to you is a gift.  We should always appreciate gifts that are given to us even if they aren't useful.

Giving a gift of your family's story can be a way to give a useful gift.  The gift might not be as appreciated at the present time as you may like, but it has a way of increasing in value.  After my sister's death, I valued anything she had written such as entries on a calendar of what she had done.  Many of her belongings became valuable to me and I have hung on to them for all these years.  I have so many questions I would ask my parents if they were still alive.  I would love to ask my grandparents and my great grandparents questions about their lives.  When I learn more about their lives, I learn more about my own.  I begin to see answers to why I am the way I am from things I learn about them.  I hope sharing family stories with my daughters will help them understand themselves more as well as learn about their ancestors.

You probably wouldn't have time to give a completed biography of every one of your ancestors (unless you've been working on it for a long time already) as a gift to each of your family members this year, but you can give a little bit of your family story.  You can give photos.  You can create an album or a scrapbook.  You can create a video with photos.  You can do a video interview of an older family member.  You can copy audio or video recordings with family members who have passed away.  You can write down some stories from your family and add related photos to the stories.  You can share a favorite recipe from a family member.  Some of these things would cost very little to share.  Others would take more of an investment mostly of time, but each could be a unique gift that may be treasured for years.

Consider sharing your family story as a special Christmas gift this year.

Parable about Life

When I saw this video, I thought how true it is of life.  When you are writing your life story maybe it will help to remember this parable.  Life is not easy and we all have challenges, but there is a purpose to life.  Hopefully as you write your story you will see the purpose in your life.

Another question for your story:

How did you heat your home?

Heat in the winter time is a pretty important thing.  Different sources of heat are used.  When you were young what kind of heat did you have in your home?  What kind of heat do you have now in your home?  Did you have to work at having heat such as gathering wood and building a fire?  Or did you just turn up the thermostat to have heat?
When I was young we had a coal burning furnace.  It had a hopper which when filled completely would keep a fire burning for hours.  One of our chores as kids was to fill the hopper with coal.  The coal was in small round chunks that we shoveled into a bucket in the coal bin and then dumped into the hopper.  The coal would burn down into clinkers which had to be removed from the furnace firebox.  You didn't want to forget to fill the hopper if it was your turn.  If you forgot, the house would fill with smoke when the furnace ran out of coal.  Then everyone in the family would have to sit outside and wait for the smoke to clear out of the house.
I also learned the hard way to remember that the poker for removed the clinkers would get hot.  I accidentally let the poker touch the top of my foot.  That taught me to be much more cautious when working around the furnace.
I did enjoy the warm heat from the furnace.  It had a blower and the heat was blown through ducts into each room.  I liked to stick my feet over the side of my bed where the vent was and let them get really warmed up.  If you had wet clothes, they could dry quickly when hung over the vent.  If the power went out, the furnace still produced heat.  It just couldn't be blown throughout the house.  You had to stay close to the furnace to stay warm.  
Unfortunately burning coal leaves a fine layer of soot on the walls and ceilings, so every spring we got to wash down the walls and ceilings.  
Today I live in an all electric house.  Each room has radiant heaters in the ceilings.  I just turn on the thermostat and the heaters start to work.  I have a wood burning fireplace which gives very nice heat, but it is a lot of work to build and keep a fire going.
Write down what you did for heat throughout your life.  Write down what you liked about your source of heat and what you didn't like.  Write down what you did when your source of heat wasn't working.  Write down what source of heat your grandparents had.  Even the every day things like heat add to your story.

 
 

Christmas Dreams Holiday Card
by aura2000