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Help Save the Gorillas
Take action on 5 December and double your impact!
Ape Action Africa is excited to be part of this year’s Big Give Christmas Challenge - join us and your donation will be doubled!
Donate here: The Big Give
The Christmas Challenge is a fantastic initiative created by The Big Give and supported by a range of sponsors. It is a unique opportunity for our supporters to be rewarded for their generosity by having their donations doubled, allowing us to make twice the impact through our work.
The Challenge starts at 10.00am (GMT) on 5th December and runs for just 5 days. To make sure your donations are doubled and help us make the most of this fantastic opportunity, save the 5th December in your diaries. Don’t worry if you forget though - we’ll be counting down to donation day on our website, Facebook and Twitter.
The donations you make as part of the Christmas Challenge will go directly towards the care of our sanctuary’s youngest orphans, including our newest arrivals - gorillas Luci and Chickaboo. It costs £20 a week to feed one baby gorilla – if you can help us to reach our challenge target, we’ll be able to support five babies for a whole year!
Donate here: The Big Give
How will YOU help charitable organizations this year?
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Why Wait? Save Your Family Stories NOW
This was a guest post today on Simple Marriage.
Four years ago, I took some creative writing and memoir writing classes, joined the Association of Personal Historians (APH) and became a Personal Historian. As I started to get more clients, I noticed a disturbing trend: my subjects had a tendency to die.
Most of the life stories I’ve written have been about elderly people. I learned very quickly to determine the most important topics to be covered before staring any interviews, and then address them first. Obviously, none of us know just how long we’ll live, but older people most likely have less time remaining. However, we can lose anyone at any age.
By the end of my first year in business, I was becoming discouraged—not because I didn’t have enough clients, but because the majority of them had passed away. To be honest, I almost felt like the Grim Reaper. For a while, I contemplated whether this was the right field. During the interviewing and writing processes, it was easy for me to get involved with my subjects, through the good and the bad in their lives. When they died, it was heartbreakingly sad.
One of my clients died very suddenly, but peacefully, while watching her favorite television program. I had just completed the interviews and written her story; all that remained was to finish pulling in the scanned photographs. After talking to the daughter who had commissioned me, we decided to complete her mother’s story in a booklet and give it to the family members, which I did two days later.
At the wake the next day, the family made me feel that my efforts were not only worthwhile, they were greatly appreciated. Without the stories I had preserved, the children and grandchildren would never have known some of the details from the woman’s life.
I continue to write life stories for people and encourage them to write their own. The important thing is to preserve those precious family stories before they are lost forever. None of us know exactly how much time we have. Here are some suggestions to help you start saving your own family stories now, while you still can.
Record Them
When you start working on your own family stories, I do strongly recommend getting a digital recorder, which is small, unobtrusive & fairly inexpensive. Mine is a Sony ICD-P520, which is less than $50 on Amazon.com. Another nice feature is that you can use the USB to load it to your computer and create CDs. Once you have a recording, you can also transcribe it into a Word document.
Prioritize Subjects
If you want to capture stories and folklore from the elderly, I urge you to start right away. You never know when they (or perhaps just their minds) may be suddenly taken away. Whenever you get a group of people together, encourage them to talk about their experiences. If possible, record them talking, but if not, then take notes to expand later.
Writing Journal
Keep a writing journal to remind yourself of stories you want them to talk about, or events you recall yourself. Use photos & memorabilia to help them reminisce. That often has a starburst effect - one memory leads to three others and each of them to several more. It is a wonderful way to keep expanding their legacy.
Helpful Websites
Here are some of my favorite websites to help you get started. And of course, my book has some excellent ideas on how to capture your family stories.
About.com: Genealogy website has a list of 50 questions to help on interviews.
www.genealogy.about.com/cs/oralhistory/a/interview.htm
Ancestry.com: This website says, “Feel free to print and distribute” a Script for Video or Audio Interviews with Family Members. www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lineage/famhist.htm
Bethlamie.com: My website, where you can sign up for a free monthly newsletter (via email) with tips on writing family history.
www.bethlamie.com
One Story at a Time.blogspot.com: My blog with writing suggestions and examples of family stories.
www.onestoryatatime.blogspot.com
Association of Personal Historians (APH), which offers an anthology of personal stories.
www.personalhistorians.org/
Cyndi’s List.com: More than 200,000 website links to help with genealogy and family history.
www.cyndislist.com/
Grandparents TLC.com: This site offers “Technology to Help Loving Grandparents Connect with Grandchildren!”
www.grandparentstlc.com/blog/
Smithsonian Institute: This booklet in PDF format explains how to get started with interviews, sample questions and additional resources.
www.Folklife.SI.edu/Resources/pdf/InterviewingGuide.pdf
Story of My Life.com: Free private website to easily gather all your family stories from friends and family and invite participation from around the world.
www.storyofmylife.com
However you decide to start your own family stories, please start sooner rather than later. When something happens to one of your loved ones, you’ll be glad to have a keepsake of them.
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Double Your Donation Dec 5
Take action on 5 December and double your impact!
Ape Action Africa is excited to be part of this year’s Big Give Christmas Challenge - join us and your donation will be doubled!
Donate here: The Big Give
The Christmas Challenge is a fantastic initiative created by The Big Give and supported by a range of sponsors. It is a unique opportunity for our supporters to be rewarded for their generosity by having their donations doubled, allowing us to make twice the impact through our work.
The Challenge starts at 10.00am (GMT) on 5th December and runs for just 5 days. To make sure your donations are doubled and help us make the most of this fantastic opportunity, save the 5th December in your diaries. Don’t worry if you forget though - we’ll be counting down to donation day on our website, Facebook and Twitter.
The donations you make as part of the Christmas Challenge will go directly towards the care of our sanctuary’s youngest orphans, including our newest arrivals - gorillas Luci and Chickaboo. It costs £20 a week to feed one baby gorilla – if you can help us to reach our challenge target, we’ll be able to support five babies for a whole year!
Donate here: The Big Give
How will YOU help charitable organizations this year?
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Thanksgiving Memories - Keepsake for Kids
This is an encore presentation. Enjoy!
What are your plans for Thanksgiving? As you consider the food, table settings, decorations and the dozens of other arrangements to be made, here's a suggestion for keeping the children busy and happy. It's also a great way to help them record their experiences and memories.
Use this link to download a free ebook for the kids:
Thanksgiving Keepsake for Kids
The ebook has activities that combine personal stories, family history, writing, drawing, and interviewing family members and friends.
Here are some of the questions that children can consider during the Thanksgiving holiday:
Who celebrates Thanksgiving with you?
Where will everyone travel from?
Were there any travel problems?
What did you like best about Thanksgiving?
What is your favorite Thanksgiving memory?
What foods will be fixed for Thanksgiving?
What will/did you give thanks for on Thanksgiving?
What will/did you do on Thanksgiving morning?
What was Thanksgiving dinner like?
What did you do on Thanksgiving night?
What stories did you hear on Thanksgiving?
What will your kids remember about Thanksgiving?
I'd love to hear about your experiences using this ebook.
If you are interested in receiving an ebook on other holidays, such as Christmas, Hanukkah, etcetera, please leave a comment below. All suggestions are welcome.
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Why I Teach About Ethical Wills
Many instructors can teach students the mechanics of writing a cohesive story. Some can help writers ferret out individual stories from their lives. However, my forte is combining both of these aspects of personal storytelling to create a compelling ethical will.
My goal is to educate people about ethical wills and how writing one creates an enduring legacy. Many of them are looking for ways to ensure their lives have been worth living and of importance to future generations—they want to be remembered.
During my writing workshops, students learn how to evoke powerful memories by drawing from their life experiences, how to examine their thoughts and select a subject, and how to write a cohesive story. The final step is to create a compelling tale that resonates with their loved ones, who are recipients of the ethical will.
Feedback from my ethical wills workshops has been positive. When participants complete a workshop and walk out with their first ethical will in their hands, I know I’ve made a difference in their lives.
Ready to start your own ethical will? Consider joining my free teleclass on Thursday:
CALL-IN INFORMATION:
Dial-In: 712 - 432 - 0900
Access: 197851#
Thursday 11/17/11 8 PM Eastern / 7 PM Central / 6 PM Mountain / 5 PM Pacific
TOPIC: What Is an Ethical Will vs a Last Will?
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Inspirational Quotes from Darren LaCroix
Last week, I met Darren LaCroix, who is a World Champion of Public Speaking. He gave an inspirational presentation to the NSA-IL (National Speakers Association – Illinois). I loved that he was so willing to share his knowledge with everyone, which was impressive.
One of Darren’s free offerings is 365 days of inspirational quotations, which are available to everyone.
Just go to www.365InspirationalQuotes.com to sign up.
I’m looking forward to reading a new quote every morning. How about you?
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Simple Ethical Will
An Ethical Will is a wonderful way to pass your personal values on to your loved ones. It also tells the world what you consider important, as an individual or as a responsible corporation.
Here is a simple yet lovely example, expressed as a Code of Conduct by the J. M. Smucker Company.
J. M. Smucker’s Code of Conduct:
• Listen with your full attention
• Look for the good in others
• Have a sense of humor
• Say thank you for a job well done
What values will you include in your Ethical Will?
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Veteran's Day 11-11-11
Happy Veteran's Day to all our current and retired military personnel.
Thank you for all you have given for our country.
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Too Early for Snow
We live in the Midwest, where the weather can be unpredictable and unseasonably warm or cold, wet or dry, or any combination of all of them in one peculiar season. I realize that. However, I somehow missed the weather forecast for today to include snow flurries.
So when we started getting some pretty heavy snow showers, I was amazed . . . and unprepared. I happen to love winter, but usually we work up to snow season more gradually.
Fortunately for us, the huge snowflakes melted as soon as they landed on the brick pavers in the back yard.
Seeing that, and realizing I had nowhere special to go tonight, I relaxed and watched the beautiful flakes swirl around.
I also realized today was yet another day for which I am grateful. Thank you, Lord!
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Apples in the Fall
This is an encore presentation from 11/13/2008. I think of this topic every year at this time. Enjoy!
Fall has always been one of my favorite seasons with the start of the new school year, foliage beginning to change and the onset of cooler days and nights. One of our memorable pastimes was to pick apples in a local orchard.
We brought our own containers - a variety of boxes, bushel baskets and tubs. For consistency in measuring how much we picked, the orchard provided their own bushel baskets to use during the picking process, then the apples were gently transferred to our own. It was lucky for us that they could not measure how many apples we managed to eat while picking.
There was an especially bountiful harvest one autumn when my son Jason was six years old. He and I had recently moved back to my hometown after living in the "City", that is, anywhere north of Interstate 80, as far as my Dad was concerned. It was a beautiful cool, crisp day with the sun shining as we drove to the orchard with Mom & Dad.
The trees were just covered with a terrific selection of big juicy apples that year: Jonathans, Red Delicious, Yellow Delicious and McIntosh. Naturally, we had to grab the biggest shiniest ones to taste test before we could begin picking.
As we moved from tree to tree, Jason delighted in running ahead to survey the next target and cry, "Wow, look at all the big ones on THIS tree!" It was so easy to get caught up in the moment of fun & discovery that the four of us ended up picking seven full bushels of apples.
That was a huge amount of apples for us or for anyone. Fortunately, I had an old spare refrigerator in my garage, so we were able to pack it full with the apples that didn't fit into our main refrigerators. With all that food stockpiled, we stuffed ourselves (as well as family, friends and neighbors) with all manner of scrumptious apple delicacies.
The delicious aroma of cinnamon and nutmeg filled our house almost every day. We had apple pie, apple crisp, apple cake, apple coffeecake and apple pudding. And still we had more apples.
We had fried apples, caramel apples, taffy apples, apple butter, apple salads, apple muffins and apple dumplings. And still we had more apples.
Jason took brightly polished red and yellow apples to school for his birthday treat, and for his teacher, too. For Christmas, we even hung shiny red apples by ribbons onto our tree. And still we had more apples.
We had enough apples to last us all through that Fall and Winter and into Spring. By the time we had finally finished eating all those apples, I realized two things: 1) an apple a day really does keep the doctor away because we didn’t get sick all winter long, and 2) I never EVER got tired of apples!
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