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. Read More

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. Read More

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. Read More

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: Read More

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?
Read More

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 Read More

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. Read More

Life can change in an instant. We know this. And, yet when it happens and we lose someone we love, we know it deeply. Lately, I have watched many people lose their loved ones. I hear their words, read their tales and feel their tears mixed with my own. When we lose a loved one, we never wish we had said I love you less. We always wish we had said more, listened more, and loved bigger. This Father’s day, let’s acknowledge the dad’s we know – whether they are ours or simply those we observe. Today, go find a dad to love. They are everywhere. Grab one if you have to. Tell him what he needs to hear. Appreciate the heck out of him. And, of course, love your own if you are willing.

Some of us are lucky and have the best fathers in the world. Others may not consider themselves so lucky. How about for this Father’s day, we celebrate the perfect – as well as the imperfect fathers. Let’s celebrate those that strive to do better as well as those who believe they can never measure up. And, let’s cheer the spirit of what it means to be a father. At it’s core, and whether or not it is “done well”, fatherhood is a miraculous mission. Read More