In creating the Heart course “Do A Life-Story Album in 3 Easy Steps”, there was a major theme we had to follow in order to make it a “doable” project: we had to think like a Film Director!
That means instead of getting overwhelmed by trying to do our “whole” story (or a family member’s “whole” story), and thus just giving up before even starting, we would, like a film director, create a shorter script of the story focused on the key points and highlights – the major points of a life story.
And this brings me to my point….the one we initial testers discovered as we were walking through the Album course.
As we reflected on the script categories — major events and key points of our life– and started writing out the “script” of our story, we found we have valuable, rich lessons learned and character development history that only we can express and explain.
And we NEED those stories to be told, vitalized with photos if possible, and passed down to those who come after us. Just like the Lord instructed the Israelites in Deuteronomy 6 to pass their history stories down through the generations in order to instruct and guide those who came later and did not experience the miracles leaving Egypt.
Think about it – wouldn’t you love to know what brought your grandparents (or great grandparents) together, led them to the work they did, and what events and circumstances shaped their character, their lives, decisions and beliefs? And all from their perspective – in their words?
For instance, in my story, becoming a basketball player on my school’s team in junior high through high school was one of the most life-shaping points….honing character, beliefs and traits I would not fully recognize and value until my later “look-back” years.
We’re talking small West Texas town in the late 50’s, early 60’s back when girls were so “fragile” (ha!) they only played half-court, guards on one end and forwards on the other end. I was a forward, thankfully tall for my age, and found I absolutely LOVED the sport and was pretty good at it. And I discovered an “intensity” level that worked well for me – and drove me to constantly want to improve and practice at 110% level every day.
So intense that after breaking 5-6 pairs of glasses over my junior high years that my dad offhandedly said he couldn’t afford for me to keep playing basketball. I fell apart – tears, etc. (little did I realize he was my biggest fan and never would have stopped me playing). But my mother took me to an optometrist who only agreed to let me try the “new” contacts because he realized it was not for looks but for a sincere need to play ball. I went through hard weeks of getting used to them (they were huge and caused constant tears plus light sensitivity and if I couldn’t get them out, my dad had to use a suction device to pull them out). But I was determined – and eventually they worked great! Perseverance, dedication to the goal, focusing on the gain rather than the pain – you get my drift.
Back to my Life-Story album project – I knew I had made a small scrapbook of the newspaper clippings of our senior year in basketball and wanted to find it because there were some games and photos reported there I wanted to use. We 6 seniors on the team had been through 12 years of school together and WE WERE THE TEAM! But I was getting bogged down looking for photos and the small album which was leading to the overwhelm that I knew would end up killing my excitement about doing this Album. After years of moves, storage boxes full of mixed items swallowed up so much stuff it was daunting to even look.
So I resolved to give it 2 hours of searching one evening and if that didn’t work, I would just write the stories. And sure enough, I found it – it had survived! And yes, there was a photo in one of the clippings that brought it all back – fully sweat-drenched hair, intense drive to the basket, write up about the scoring and game victory, the blood stain on my stocking because our coach would not allow knee pads (because we would be tempted to fall down too easily) and I could never get the stain out — and so much more flooded back.
Now I am busy reducing all the memories and reflections to my “lessons learned” and how they have impacted my life – here are a few —
—leadership, encouragement of others, developing team spirit – things not often experienced by girls since team sports for them were not often available
–valuing work ethic of practicing, drilling, giving my best in every game – doing it all for the “team” a.k.a “playing my heart out”
—confidence in myself and discovering that fusing desire for excellence and practice was a winning combo for me
–recognition of the need to work together as a team toward the common goal, and then celebrating each team member for contribution (valuing others)
And a few stories rose to my mind that would only have happened in that time period:
….In 1963 there was “forced integration” all across the south and that was my senior year. I was so “oblivious” that I was not aware of a small group of houses across the tracks that was the town’s black population and they had a separate school. So two black girls joined our basketball team and one, Jackie, was good as a forward. She and I worked plays well together. The original tensions at the beginning of the school year had disappeared in our locker room when Jackie taught us all how to do the “funky chicken” dance.
But my big revelation occurred when I reflected in later years that I often gave Jackie a ride home (I had my brother’s car that year). It was on my way as I lived 5 miles out of town — I just made a turn, went across the tracks and she would insist I let her off in the middle of the main dirt road in the group of houses and turn around and go back across the tracks. Finally, I asked why she didn’t want me to drive her up to her house, especially when it was dark and cold. She just said “you wouldn’t be safe” and I let it go at that, not really understanding it at the time. We were not glued to the “news” or into “politics” or even much in tune with national events. But now as I look back, I appreciate her wisdom and protection of me.
….And I can’t deny the good feeling I got when we would be walking down Main Street sidewalk (okay, it was only a few blocks long) passing by the open door of the Domino Hall where the old men gathered and hear them call out things like “hey Mudgett, you gals gonna get another win tomorrow?” or some such positive support. Yep, they knew our names!
….Then remembering how our whole team bonded as we rode to all the games in the old yellow school buses to towns that were usually 15 to 45 miles away. We had chatter, fun, laughter, shivering (the heaters were never good enough), and forged lifelong relationships throughout our times together.
As I look back, I can pinpoint a few of my classmates who were natural “peacemakers” and positive influences – and I believe their leadership and impact helped us have a history of positive and uplifting interactions with everyone on the bus and never any mean or disrespectful behavior. I believe that “live at peace and with joy” atmosphere was a huge influence on my decision to invest so much of my life in Christian conciliation.
Hopefully, by now you get my point – and it is aimed directly at you! Whether you are participating in the Life-Story Album course or not, you have life-shaping stories and highlights which only you can describe and share how they influenced you. Have you recorded them – in any fashion?
I will use guilt or shame, but prefer to use inspiration, to get you to consider just taking one key point of your life story and putting it into a written format, with photos if there are any. Even if you just turn on your phone and record it and give it to a family member to transcribe it – WooHoo, I would be so proud of you. And those who get to have it as a keepsake will be so grateful for it.
Of course, you need to store it in a place that will be available during your life +100 years and able to be accessed by your kids and grandkids. Yes, that would be at Forever.com and here is a link for you to check out a FREE account HERE – as they say, “just do it”!
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