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Your Life is Your Story, Issue #229 – Family Focus October 29, 2025 |
| Greetings "Your past is your story up to now. The future is the story yet to come. The present is where you live with that experience, your hopes and your dreams." 
Your Life is Your Story Newsletter October 29, 2025 Your Life is Your Story, Issue #229 – Family Focus From Tom Gilbert – Editor and Writer, www.your-life-your-story.com In this Issue: Opening remarks: Wild World Series Featured Article – Family Focus Featured Resource – Cheryl Strayed - Wild Opening Remarks: Wild World SeriesThe World Series has already played four games and the heavily favored Los Angeles Dodgers are finding that the Toronto Blue Jays are a very resilient bunch. It’s a Canadian team against a historic American franchise. The Blue Jays haven’t been to the Fall Classic since 1993. That’s a long wait for their fans. On the other hand, the Dodgers are the defending champions, so they were on this stage just a year ago when they went on to beat the New York Yankees. Baseball’s best meet each year in the World Series, the pennant winners from the American League and the National League. In order to make it this far the competitors must make it through the various playoff levels. While the Dodgers won game three in an epic 18 inning game the Blue Jays came back to win last night and tie the series at two games apiece. The first team to win four in the best of seven series gets to be the World Champions. Plenty of stars like Shohei Ohtani and Vladimir Guerrero Junior and lots of action. Baseball is my favorite sport and can teach us a lot about life. Thank you so much for being part of the Your Life Is Your Story community. Thanks to all our subscribers. I hope you enjoy this month’s issue. You are receiving this e-zine because you signed up for it or someone who is subscribed passed it along to you. If a friend DID forward this to you consider subscribing by visiting our signup page . Also, let me know what you’d like to see more of in this newsletter – simply reply to this email e-zine. – Tom Featured Article: Family Focus
What you focus on becomes magnified in your mind. Spend all your time focused on problems and you’ll probably get a headache. Focus on solutions and one just might come to you. I’ve been thinking about the importance of focusing on family. It seems more important than ever given the somewhat distressing times we live in. My sister just came out from Kansas City this past week to visit and we had a good time together, enjoying meals, chatting about past and present, and mostly being grateful to have each other. Consider the various members of your family. I realize not every family is ideal, in fact the term dysfunctional can probably apply to any family, at least a little bit. Nevertheless, having parents, siblings, children, grandparents, grandchildren, and cousins gives us an opportunity to learn from each other, play together, and tell stories. Telling tales is often the most funThere are many different roles that various family members might play. Someone typically is the caretaker. Other types include the agitator, the drama ruler and the peacemaker.Storyteller is a good one and people often gravitate to that one family member who can weave a spell with reminiscences and outlandish memories.
Read more articles at here. Some suggestions that include a family theme include: Lessons From My Daughter Grandparenting Family December Reflections Two Brothers, A Truck, and Jaws Featured Resource: Cheryl Strayed - WildIt has only been a few days since I finished reading Cheryl Strayed’s incredible memoir, Wild. I guess as a person who deals with lots of life story writing I am late to the party, nevertheless, now that I have read it I am reminded of what makes a great memoir and how important it is for us to read as many good ones as you can.Cheryl Strayed was just in her mid-twenties when she decided to hike 1,700 kilometers of the Pacific Coast Trail (PCT). It was a serious undertaking that she freely admits through the course of her story she was ill prepared to undertake. Still, she did it, walking over 90 days through some very difficult conditions. She had a backpack way bigger and heavier than she probably needed which she nicknamed “Monster.” She could hardly lift it. Her feet took some brutal punishment, partly because her boots were too small. It’s fascinating how she learns this and what the solution ends up being. Mostly what I found so great about her memoir was her honesty, vulnerability, insight and terrific visual writing. At that point in life she had been through four years of real grief, mostly from losing her mother to cancer, but also going through a divorce, addiction and angst over her purpose in life. It is a terrific read. I believe we can find ourselves in our stories which is one of the good reasons for doing a memoir. Listen to Cheryl Strayed talk about her powerful memoir in this short almost three minute YouTube clip. Closing InformationThat’s it for this month’s issue. Thanks for reading. Here’s to telling your story. Do give it some serious consideration because I just know you’ve got a great story to tell! Be sure to see the Get Started section.Any comments, ideas or feedback is greatly appreciated. Just reply to this ‘zine and tell me what you think! Until next time, – keep your story alive! Tom Gilbert |
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