Writing about ourselves isn’t easy. Where should we begin? What should we disclose? How do we know what is of importance, or what anyone else will care about? What about the prose itself? I’m not a writer!

Here’s an approach I have used myself, and have taught in writing workshops I have led.  You may find it helpful. First, some background about what inspired it.

§

A number of years ago I came across on a street in my neighborhood an enormous old tree recently cut down. I stopped to count the rings: 110! This tree had had more than a century of quiet, steady growth, beginning long before there were any houses on this street — long before there was a street.

Many species of tree last far longer than we do. But like us, they become who they are slowly, growing little by little, season by season, getting stronger, taller, and more resilient. Those seasons of growth leave a trace in the rings that are visible only when the tree is felled. In our temperate latitudes, where there is one growing season per year, each tree-ring represents one year of life. Scientists who study the age of trees — dendrochronologists — can tell a great deal about the history of that tree from the quality of its rings: which were the years of plenty, and which were the lean years of drought? When were there insect infestations or when did fire sweep through the forest? This story is told through the rings. One ring, one year, at a time.

It seemed to me that we could approach a description of our own lives in a similar way, ring by ring. Dendrochronologists have now learned how to study tree-rings without killing the tree; we also don’t have to wait for someone to write our obituary. We can count our “rings” and explain them in our own words right now. What were the major events, the key turning points, the seasons of plenty and promise, the periods of drought and fire? Note them not by a long narrative and many words, but by just a phrase.

Start with the beginning: when were you born, where, and into what household? What was the next big thing, the next memorable event in your life? It may be five or even ten years later. You also may find that key events bunch together, two or three things in one year: you graduate from school and get your first job, for example. 

You may unearth a particularly telling picture or document to associate with one or another of your “rings.” Some milestones that you consider important may have left no material trace. They are important because you remember them as being turning points or significant moments in your life. Note them as such. No one but you will know about them or why they were significant to you.

The result will resemble an illustrated résumé — not like the one you may have used to help you get a job or be admitted to university. The purpose of this one is to explain the major contours of your life. You can make it as short or as detailed as you like, and return to it from time to time to add something new — or to remove a notation about something that no longer seems so important.

Why don’t you give it a try?