The Spiritual Memoir

Writing or reading the spiritual memoir is about the aching and questing of our souls. When we write down about the spiritual journey we become responsible to the sacred journey that we all take. Some may not choose to see it as such but it is a longing or a yearning to emerge that we all have within ourselves.

Literature is a textually transmitted disease, normally contracted in childhood.

Jane Yolen, Touch Magic: Fantasy, Faerie & Folklore in the Literature of Childhood

So what do you put in a spiritual memoir? How do you go about it? You do so by uncovering, probing, and honoring what is sacred or spiritually important in your life as a means of spiritual growth. Then making that available to others to enhance their spirituality in their own lives. You first start on the journey between yourself and the great enigma that is life is to describe a mundane activity then reflect the spiritual mystery and what it reveals about you. Stretch your mind into the abyss.

Perhaps we write towards what we will become from where we are.

May Sarton, Journal of Solitude

Write to find out what you believe. Write to discover what you think. Sometimes, only the written word will bring clarity.

Make a list of all the important questions in you life like: What happens when we die? Why did your mother abandon you? What exactly does it mean to forgive? Do I truly love? Am I truly loved? Am I focusing on the correct intentions? Answer them by freewriting. Allow your mind to wander with them and learn the spiritual importance you have trouble getting to by just sitting down to tell your life story.

Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.

Frederick Buechner, Now and Then: A Memoir of Vocation

At some point, in the process of rewriting and editing, your experiences will become unified and tangible. Allow a sense of discovery to infuse your words. And most of all read. And although you control what’s visible in your memoir, the story itself has the final say and often dictates where you may rather not want to go. That’s the spiritual side of memoir.

Until my next post, why not check out my YA novels about mental illness, memoir writing, or even my Native American mystery series on Amazon, or follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Bookbub , BookSprout, or AllAuthor.