Earlier this week... or was it last week?
Traditional time markers blur and fuse into a montage of to-do lists, punctuated by appointments, graced by tender moments, and interrupted by medical emergencies. All I know is that one day I found myself sitting at the table with my mom, as we do most days now, and she asked me, "what's your story... in six words?" She explained that she was prompted by a newsletter she gets from a woman who wrote a book. That woman (Lara) was inspired by another woman (Rachel) who also wrote a book. Hers was about six-word memoirs and her six-word memoir book is the specific thing that inspired the woman who writes the newsletter, that finds itself in my mom's inbox, to write the blog post that prompted my mom's question. Mom continued by quoting examples:
Well, I thought it was funny. – Stephen Colbert
Couldn’t cope, so I wrote songs. – Aimee Mann
I should have brought a GPS. – Karen Rile
Pulled between past, present, and future. – Alexandra Bousquet
Felled by dreams, saved by friends. – Sylvie Beauvais
A six-word story? A tagline. A motto. A mission. A perspective on one's person, in six words.
My face felt a little tingly.
I love little structures like this. Containers for creativity. Frameworks within which to play. (Remind me to write a post about Briony, five-random-words, and sound baskets.) I found myself saying, "We could try this at STORY!" So that's what we'll do. If this sounds pleasurable, write one! And then bring your six-word story with you to the next STORY and share it with us. Maybe I'll share one, too! :)
Excited to hear whatever version of your story feels right, right now, and continue to get to know you!
-Mol
**UPDATE: Here you can read the six-word stories we've been sharing!**
Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash