Witnessing yourself, observing your behavior as if you were an outsider, a fly on the wall if you will, is an excellent mode of acknowledging your faults, your talents and your delivery.

The same goes for writing. When you get enough distance between you and a painful memory, it’s easier to expound on in an objective way.

Writing about suffering and grief with detachment and in vivid detail is the stuff of great memoir, as I have learned by reading quite a few.

By the same token, writing about something simple and ordinary in an extraordinary way as if it was unique and special is the stuff of great memoir as well.

From practicing our art, reading, writing, observing and being inspired by basically everything, we hone our creative expression, whatever way that exudes from our soul.