{"quotes":[{"text":"Storytelling creates a healing serum. The thematic unguent of our personal story represents a fusion of the ineffable truths that each of us must discover within ourselves.","author":"Kilroy J. Oldster","tags":["essayist","essays","memoir","memoir-writing","memoirs","personal-story","self-awareness","self-discovery","self-discovery","self-realization","stories","stories-from-the-heart","stories-of-people","story-of-a-soul","story-of-life","story-of-my-life","story-of-your-life","story-telling","storytellers","storytelling","writers-on-thinking","writers-on-writing","writers","writing-philosophy","writing-process"],"id":9483,"author_id":"Kilroy+J.+Oldster"},{"text":"It is important to measure ourselves at least once in life, undertake a personal odyssey that constructs a clarifying prism of our being.","author":"Kilroy J. Oldster","tags":["memoir","memoir-writing","self-actualization","self-determination","self-development","self-realization","self-realization"],"id":30382,"author_id":"Kilroy+J.+Oldster"},{"text":"The womb of the world births us. My filth comes from the same earthwork that gives rise to all stories. My interior light connects me with all the other creatures that inhabit this world of rocks, air, grass, woods, and water. My genetic code links me inextricably with all of nature. I enter the medley in the river of life with the ability to respond as life unfolds before my childlike eyes. My homemade medicinal poultice might not be of any benefit to other people. Nonetheless, we should each write our stories because each of us aims to attain a greater degree of awareness of our own authenticity. We owe a moral obligation to our family, friends, and ourselves as well as to the community to make a determined effort to wring the most out of life. We must applaud all efforts to investigate the human condition. Even if my writing amounts to nothing more than a clumsy attempt to travel the same tracks other people burnished with much more insight, clarity, precision, and style, it is an act of self-definition to ascribe to any philosophy. Philosophy represents a living charter; it is a life of action.","author":"Kilroy J. Oldster","tags":["autobiography","essay-writing","essayist","essays","memoir","memoir-writing","memories","personal-essay","personal-essays","philosophy","philosophy-of-life","philosophy","writers-on-thinking","writers-on-writing","writing"],"id":35999,"author_id":"Kilroy+J.+Oldster"},{"text":"Writing about the self to spur intellectual growth or attain a teardrop of emotional salvation is akin to a fish attempting to construct a net that will capture itself.","author":"Kilroy J. Oldster","tags":["enlightenment","memoir","memoir-writing","narrative-writing","personal-development","personal-growth","salvation","self-awareness","self-awareness","self-discovery","self-discovery","self-knowing","self-knowledge","self-knowledge"],"id":37461,"author_id":"Kilroy+J.+Oldster"},{"text":"Storytelling entails weaving a narrative out of the disturbing, strange, inspirational, and unremarkable detritus of life. By picking among the litter of our personal experiences to select evocative anecdotes to weave into a narrative format, we reveal which of life’s legendary offerings prove the most sublime to us. Acts of omission are momentous. Our narration of personal sketches divulge what factoids inspire us or do not stir us into action, or contain obdurate truths that prove virtually impossible to crack.","author":"Kilroy J. Oldster","tags":["autobiography","essay-writing","life-story","memoir","memoir-writing","personal-story","story-of-my-life","storytelling","storytelling","writers-on-writing","writing","writing-philosophy","writing-process"],"id":43345,"author_id":"Kilroy+J.+Oldster"},{"text":"The principal advantage of narrative writing is that it assists us place our life experiences in a storytelling template. The act of strict examination forces us to select and organize our past. Narration provides an explanatory framework. Human beings often claim to understand events when they manage to formulate a coherent story or narrative explaining what factors caused a specific incident to occur. Stories assist the human mind to remember and make decisions based on informative stories. Narrative writing also prompts periods of intense reflection that leads to more writing that is ruminative. Contemplative actions call for us to track the conscious mind at work rendering an accounting of our weaknesses and our strengths, folly and wisdom.","author":"Kilroy J. Oldster","tags":["essay","essay-writing","memoir","memoir-writing","narrative","narrative-writing","personal-development","personal-growth","personal-responsibility","self-improvement","self-realization","self-reflection","story","story-of-my-life","story-of-your-life","story-telling","writing","writing-philosophy","writing-process"],"id":46175,"author_id":"Kilroy+J.+Oldster"},{"text":"A writer is not born but made through study and sheer willpower and ability to embrace beauty and agony.","author":"Kilroy J. Oldster","tags":["essayist","memoir-writing","personal-essays","writer","writers","writers-on-writing","writers","writing","writing"],"id":56324,"author_id":"Kilroy+J.+Oldster"},{"text":"A person whom writes begins by putting down what they know about loneliness, shame, love, and heartache. In writing fully, they discover many other aspects of themselves that they never suspected including doubts, beliefs, ironies, and farcicalities.","author":"Kilroy J. Oldster","tags":["belief","doubt","heartache","loneliness","loneliness","love","love","memoir","memoir-writing","narrative-writing","self-awareness","self-discovery","self-discovery","self-doubt","self-knowing","self-knowledge","shame","shame","writing"],"id":57842,"author_id":"Kilroy+J.+Oldster"},{"text":"Writing reflects life and life is a mystery. All any of us can do is press the fleet footed beauty of life close to our flesh and use whatever instruments are within our grasp to express the evanescent spark of mysticism that resides within us.","author":"Kilroy J. Oldster","tags":["memoir-writing","writers-on-writing","writing","writing-philosophy","writing-process","writing"],"id":58721,"author_id":"Kilroy+J.+Oldster"},{"text":"The metaphysical poetry of our innovative life springs from the aesthetic, scenic, and systematic processes of inventiveness, the creative impulse of an active mind generating aesthetical intuition.","author":"Kilroy J. Oldster","tags":["identity","identity","intuition","inventiveness","memoir","memoir-writing","mind","mind-power","self-awareness","self-awareness","self-knowledge","self-knowledge","story-of-my-life","thinking","writers-on-thinking","writers-on-writing","writing"],"id":75705,"author_id":"Kilroy+J.+Oldster"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":57,"pages":6,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}