Memoir as Soul Work

May 30, 2011 | By | 6 Replies More
Painting by author and painter Nancy Wait in 1980

Nancy Wait's self portrait in 1980

All art is expression.

All expression is a way of putting it “out there.”

As soon as we put it out there it’s no longer insideus, or merely inside us. It has been expressed outwardly. So we can now hear it, feel it, see it, touch it – outside of  us. And so we get to know ourselves better in the world. And so we become more knowing.

This is especially true of memoir.

Memoir is the story of us. It is about who we are, who we think we are, who we think we might have been, and who we were.

We write our stories with the hope they will be read and that readers will have a response, that they will be moved in some way.

But whether or not they respond in ways we expect or desire, whether or not our books fly off the shelves, something utterly amazing has occurred within us along the way of transforming our  memory into prose: we have become conscious of who we actually are.

We live in a world of doing. A world that constantly changes with the changes measured in degrees and percentages and various graphs and scales.

Experiences are felt or not felt, and slip by, replaced by the next experience. Time might seem to be hurtling by. Those of us who write, slow it down. We slow down time. Writers of memoir slow it down further, because of this going back and reliving events from the past. We have to relive them in order for these events to feel real again. For them to come alive to the reader—as alive and real as they were for us at the time.

It wasn’t until I was well into the process of writing down my life that I became aware that there was a force working through me. I felt this force as an energy, as a spirit of soul consciousness. This was because of the depths I traversed. Not all memoirists wish to turn their lives inside out to find hidden meanings, or send plumb lines down to the depths of their subconscious. Nor is it required. Yet if we do choose this kind of delving, the benefits are immeasurable. For we are doing nothing less than putting our lives in order—our psyches, really.

drawing of a person facing a multicolored tree

A drawing of a figure facing a multi-colored tree by author and painter Nancy Wait

In the myth of Psyche and Eros, Psyche’s first task was to make order out of the pile of seeds and sort them all out. Sorting out our experience is soul work. It means taking the time to step out of the hurly-burly and look back at where we have been. I can’t think of a better way to know the  way forward than to step back and look at where I have been. The writing creates a map of sorts. Where was I and when was I there? Why was I there?

The way forward then is in the looking back, the stepping back. The reader may find my story interesting or not. For me it is fascinating. For I have unearthed stories that I may have hidden from myself until now. And aside from sorting out “what happened when,” I may have found the underlying reasoning. I may have made connections, connecting this feeling to that event.

Truth is always interesting. We first write for ourselves, and then we write for others to read, and with each revision the story becomes richer and more vibrant and more real. And we become more real as we become more aware of who we truly are inside.

Yet it is in the sharing of our stories that we really take off. In making them public, in reading them aloud, we are honoring our experience. We are also empowering others to take that leap of faith into their own lives. We don’t know what we might touch off in another, what trigger or spark we might ignite. And it may only be on a subconscious level. But truth is catching. When we can open up, another sees that it is possible. And so we all move forward. We all grow.

Who knows, but that by unearthing the first stone, what the next stone might uncover.

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What’s your experience in working with memoir?

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Nancy Wait is the author of The Nancy Who Drew, coming out this summer, 2011. She is also an artist and a former actress, and hosts a weekly blog talk radio show called Art and Ascension

Follow @NancyWait on Twitter. Read and subscribe to Nancy’s Alchemy of Memoir blog. Visit Nancy Wait’s website. Listen to her on Art and Acension on Blog Talk Radio.

 

 

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Category: US American Women Writers, Women Writing Memoirs

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  1. The Journey of Soul Transformation | June 3, 2011
  1. Musa Askari says:

    Nancy,
    You write so clearly and beautifully. It is an easy, light, effortless and yet very deep read. So many wonderful analogies that spark off the imagination of the reader. I felt reading your post, it reminded me, that to truly observe our lives time moves in both the directions from whereever we stand upon that line (moment) in time. We are looking in both the directions ahead and behind us while also being in another “time” called “now” – almost above time. “Now” for me is outside of time whilst being in it. It is a foot in both the worlds, of embodiment and bodiless. Also to observe our lives it reminded me one must perhaps learn to stand back & apart from one’s life. To become an observer of it. To reach for some objective understanding, as like when a friend asks us for advice on their life. As Souls one can reach foor this through many lifetimes. Lived or yet to live. For the soul’s memory is the true reservior of all that we have been and may perhaps come to be. Perhaps the act of writing is a mixture of creating, enacting, reliving and most importantly “remembering”. Thanks for sharing.
    Musa

    • Nancy Wait says:

      Musa, Thank you for your thoughtful reply. Becoming the observer indeed. It’s the only way to develop emotional detachment and not be ruled by the emotions. I did, however,run into some comments from other writers at grad school saying that they wanted to know more about how I was feeling. I was accused of writing my experience as if I was a journalist reporting events. Yet sometimes we do need to have that distance in order to go back into our lives, especially when events have been painful. Writing is such a beneficial exercise, whether we intend to publish or not. It allows us to ‘know ourselves’ on a more objective level. For me it was also a way to finally feel compassion for my younger self as I lay out all the fact — finally without judgment!

  2. Mia Caruso says:

    Hello Nancy,

    First, I would like to thank you for this beautifully written article.

    I could not agree more, sorting out our experience is, in fact, Soul work. And,there are many of us now, those who seek to live from the Soul, who are taking this delving into memoir, this journey into the depths of our life’s experiences, in order to transform. In order to find the meaning and the treasures that living our life has brought us. And, each time we come to understand a piece, and shift it, we make a little more room for the light in us, our true self, our Soul, to shine through us. I believe there is no greater story that each one of us can tell, than the story of our own personal transformation.

    Love and Light,

    Mia

    • Nancy Wait says:

      Thank you Mia ~ I appreciate what you’re saying about the importance of sharing the story of our own personal transformation! I have been actively engaged in sharing my own on blog talk radio and inviting others to do the same.
      Would you have any interest in reading something aloud?
      Our next Read Your Story Aloud day is July 26th –
      http://bit.ly/jWJz8n

      Please be in touch if you’re interested. I would love to hear your ‘voice’!
      Nancy

      • Mia Caruso says:

        Hi Nancy,

        I would love to be on your blog talk radio show. Let me know what the next step is for me to participate. It’s exciting!

        Thank you so much!

        Love and Soul Magic,
        Mia

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