My father (Alan Clemens) has sent me daily emails, notes, and letters for over 20 years. This was a project that possibly, at the time, my father didn't recognize its significance for himself or me other than to communicate the message of love and provide reminders of who I am and who my parents are. The project morphed into a daily ritual for my father as it sparked creativity in his day and helped promote mental health and a focused purpose in life. My father does many activities from substitute teaching,  serving as treasurer for a summer league college baseball team, mentoring prisoners, running activities for his church group, and being a husband to his wife, Jackie. All these activities benefit from his daily routine of writing an email with a story in six words, which gets his mind stimulated and primed for the day to serve and give value to others. 

When asked, my father says he was inspired to share his thoughts from learning about Ernest Hemingway and his concise writings.  While it’s not clear as to who “originated” the ideas of the six-word story, Ernest Hemingway certainly made it famous.  A six-word story can be applied to any and every situation. For example, if I think back to my days being a hospice vigil program volunteer and sitting with someone who was dying, my six-word story would be the following (shared briefly on the Deep Talk Series page). "Alone, In Silence, Gazing and Enlightened." The six-word story, in this case, tells of when I would sit next to a person in a hospital bed, and we were the only people in the room.in the room. I would occasionally hear the voices of people as they walked through the hallways or the sounds of a ventilator or other medical devices running. I would sit and be present for the person and mentally/spiritually offer all my support and reassurance that it would be okay. Now thinking back to this, it seems a little funny because how could I know or anyone know if it would be okay? At that time, the experience of being present and quieting my thoughts led me to start carrying around a notebook and writing down my thoughts.  and from this activity, I truly feel that I gained some of the most profound and enlightened perspectives that I have in life. 

The six-word stories that my father has created for over two decades, which  I read and learn from have helped to inspire my ideas about how I live my life. I hope my sharing of this project can provide lessons or creative thoughts on how you might share messages in your lives.