Musing: Life collecting as a practice

What started as a job has become a practice for me.

Each week, no matter what else is going on in my life, I interview a community member and write a profile for the Huntsville Forester. Slowly, this practice is changing me, making me more open and conscious.

I come away from interviews feeling different. Sometimes I’m inspired, sometimes touched, sometimes grateful. Always I’m present. Really listening to someone’s story makes me step outside my own head and recognize how we are all connected.

Writing the profiles deepens and broadens that feeling of connection as I sit quietly, hold the people in my mind and heart and do my best to capture who they are and what they are about in less than 700 words. Condensing the themes and lessons of a life like that makes me focus on what is truly important.

I am grateful to all the people who have shared their lives with me so far for reminding me to keep an eye on the big picture and to appreciate my own moment-by-moment experiences. After all, many moments make a life.