Sunday, October 14, 2007

"Everyone Has a Story" with Karon Jarrard

I went to the San Diego Genealogical Society meeting on Saturday and heard the presentation "Everyone Has a Story" by Karon Jarrard. The synopsis of the talk is here.

Karon has been writing her life story since 1992 when she began attending adult school classes in Encinitas with about 25 other life story writers, taught by J. McClelland Hartley. Her talk covered her own experiences, some of her own stories, and recommended web sites and memory joggers to get started writing and keeping it going. She is in the process of writing her book.

She recommended the following life story writing websites:

* http://www.lifestorywriting.net

* http://www.writing-resources.com

One of the quotes she used in her talk was by Daniel Okrent:

"The fun of recalling something that you saw five days ago, or five years ago, or a lifetime ago -- knowing it's there to be plucked back into your life in an instant -- Oh God, that's rare."

Karon shared a poem she wrote (I hope she doesn't mind my typing it):

Garden of Memories
by Karon Jarrard,
May 28, 1995

"Gather memories of life
And store them in your mind.
Like flowers in a garden,
They're more fragrant over time.

"The beauty of the process
Is it's simple as can be
You merely visit your mind's garden
And pick a memory.

"Some are rambling like a rose,
Some are Violet blue,
Some are true forget-me-nots,
Some have a hazy hue.

"Some travel roads to olden times,
But if you don't want to go
Weed it from your fertile mind
Then visit another row!"

I really enjoyed Karon's talk, and reflected on how well her thoughts mesh with things like our Carnival of Genealogy and the story prompts at Miriam Midkiff's Ancestories2 blog and other sites.

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