Will Work for Airfare
With Labor Day coming up, I’d like to share a Memoiry someone sent me about one of her first jobs:
Long before airline travel included security screenings and baggage fees, my mother got me a summer job answering phones for the British airline, Laker Airways. This was in 1978, and I had just finished my freshman year of college.
Some of you may remember Laker Airways, and its founder, Sir Freddie Laker.
I worked in the office in Queens, New York, answering questions about the company’s low budget service between New York and London called Skytrain. The concept was simple, but unique enough that it required some explanation. (more…)
Walking on the Wild Side
Animals (wild and domestic) can play a significant part in our lives and, therefore, our Memoiries. Here are some four-legged Memoiries shared by a fan:
I had a very urban childhood, growing up in Queens, New York. Other than squirrels and pigeons, the only wildlife I ever saw was in a zoo. That all changed when I moved to the mountains in Colorado. Wildlife encounters are fairly commonplace here. Hardly a day goes by without seeing elk and deer. Foxes regularly poop in my driveway. But it is the bigger predator sightings that truly remind me I’m not in New York anymore. Just this morning, a rather large coyote ran out of the meadow and crossed the road about 10 feet from where my dogs and I were walking. The three of us stood in shock for a minute as the coyote looked at us and then ran into the field on the other side of the road. (more…)
Lessons from a Cancer Survivor
When we are in the middle of something, we don’t always recognize why it is significant until years later. My colleague, Amy Born, had cancer and it’s only been recently, when she was asked to write about it, that she was able to find some sort of meaning in it. This essay she wrote makes a perfect Memoiry Journal entry:
In early August 2003, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. While I was shocked to find out I had cancer, I was relieved to have a diagnosis. For more than a year, doctors and other health practitioners told me my symptoms were nothing or said I would just have to live with them.
Lesson #1 – Be your own advocate, and don’t stop until you get the right answer.
Suddenly, my life was in the hands of strangers. I had many questions and concerns. Over the next few weeks, I underwent a battery of tests, procedures, and consultations to confirm what I had, what stage it was, how the rest of me was functioning, and how I would handle treatment. My doctors were very thorough, patient, and kind. (more…)
Comfort Keepers
The Memoiry Journal is a proud partner of Comfort Keepers to support their mission of interactive caregiving. Comfort Keepers uses The Memoiry Journal to help enhance caregiver visits by guiding their clients to recollect the stories of their lives, and to ensure their top 100 most meaningful memoiries are recorded and passed along for generations to come.
“Comfort Keepers believes unremittingly in The Memoiry Journal. It is so consistent with our philosophy of interactive caregiving as to defy the imagination.”
-Steve Rudolph, Owner, Comfort Keepers Madison
Who I Want to Be When I Grow Up
We can all point to people in our lives that have shaped us in some way. Parents and grandparents. Teachers and coaches. Close friends. A friend of mine recently shared with me that some of the people who have made the biggest lasting impression on her are people who have moved in and out of her life – friends in the broad sense of the word, but not people she sees regularly or even keeps in touch with.
“After getting to know each of these women, I would think, ‘I want to be her when I grow up,’” my friend said. “When I do see them, or hear from them, they just make me smile.”
She went on to explain that they each have a way of making others feel exceedingly welcome in their presence. “When you are around them, you believe you really matter,” she says about each of them. She writes: (more…)
Fighting the Good Fight
Guest Blog by Ben Newman
What a pleasure it is to find this website! The concept of The Memoiry Journal is one that truly resonates with me. My mother passed away just before my eighth birthday. Many years after her death, my grandmother gave me a tremendous gift: my mother’s journal. Reading it as an adult was a powerful experience for me. While I always felt incredibly loved by my mother, I now had new insight into her courage, strength, and wisdom that set me on me on my path to success, even though she was only with me a short time.
“Our circumstances in life are much less significant than our responses to them, because it is not how long you live but how YOU choose to live your life.”
This is one of the most important lessons I came to learn from my mother, Janet Fishman Newman. (more…)
Who Matters to You the Most?
A few years ago, I received one of those mass emails that particularly resonated with me – so much so that I used it for my holiday client letter that year. It consisted of a quiz posing two sets of questions that were interesting when considered together.
The first set of questions:
Who are the five wealthiest people in the world?
Who were the last five Heisman trophy winners?…the last five winners of the Miss America Pageant?…the last ten World Series teams?
Who were the last ten Academy Award Best Actors/Actresses?
Who were the last ten Nobel or Pulitzer Prize winners?
(more…)
Camping with Dogs
Summer camping trips can be a great source of memoiries. Here’s a story of one trip a friend took with her family:
During the late summer of 2007, my husband, David and I, along with our kids, Eli (7) and Zoey (4), decided to try camping with our dogs. We chose Sylvan Lake, outside of Eagle, Colorado (about 3 ½ hours from home) as our destination.
Taking Koda, our border collie, and Sunny, our Australian shepherd, meant driving two vehicles – my husband’s truck to haul all the camping gear, and my Subaru Outback, to transport the dogs. Koda, riding in the back of my car, began drooling instantly, but made it as far as the Wal-Mart parking lot before (more…)
9 Golf Saved My Life
Taking the time to reflect on moments, conversations and experiences from your past can have a profound effect on your current thinking. As a kid, or even as an adult in the moment, you probably didn’t consider the bigger picture. While it can be unproductive to dwell on the past, recalling events in a broader context can provide amazing insight into your current circumstance.
Some of the best memoiries are experiences that reinforce the connection you have (or had) with someone close to you. A couple of years ago, I had the privilege of writing an essay for Golf Digest’s Golf Saved My Life feature about a special trip I took with my dad. Both the trip and the experience of writing about it are two of my best memoiries and great examples of just what the Memoiry Journal is all about. (more…)
Racing with Mom
Kids are great memoiry-makers. While they may not remember to feed the cat or put their stuff away, they are great at remembering the things that matter to them. Here’s a memoiry from a young friend, Sam. He’s 12, and he remembers a special 4th of July.
My mom got it in her head that we should run a 5K. I play lacrosse and she takes an exercise class, but neither of us are runners. Every spring she talked about doing this one race that happens in our town on July 4th. She’d done it a few times before, but she never trained and never ran the whole thing. The summer I was 10, she decided this was the year and I was going to do it with her. I agreed, but I had no idea what I was getting into. Basically, I didn’t know what “training” meant. (more…)
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