This week’s Pen Your Past™ prompt — a gentle way to write what matters, one prompt at a time.
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This Week’s Pen Your Past Prompt
Write about something you saved – and why?
It doesn’t have to be valuable. It just has to matter to you.
Maybe it’s something you kept for decades.
Maybe it’s small or strange or something no one else would notice.
But if you’re still holding onto it, there’s probably a story worth telling.
Why This Might Be Worth Writing About
The things we save aren’t just objects — they’re memory holders.
They carry stories, feelings, moments we’re not ready to forget.
Writing about something you kept can help someone else understand you better.
Even if it’s just a note, a quilt, or a receipt from a first job — your reasons for keeping it are part of your life story. And that story might matter more than the thing itself.
Try This (You Don’t Have to Be Sentimental)
Start with one thing you saved.
Not the whole attic. Just one.
Then ask:
- Where did it come from?
- Why did you keep it?
- What would someone else misunderstand about it?
- What memory lives inside it?
🖋 You don’t have to justify it. Just explain it. That’s the part someone will want to read one day..
My Life, One Story at a Time
I used to keep everything — bins of my son’s schoolwork, old birthday cards, letters from my brother’s time in the Navy, random little life scraps. I think for a long time, it felt like that was what you were supposed to do. Save it all, just in case.
But as I got older, I started thinking about what happens after I’m gone.
What will my son actually want to sort through? What will matter to him?
That’s when I started doing something different:
When I find something worth keeping, I write a little note about it — what it meant, where it came from, why I held onto it — and I stick the story with the item. Then it goes in a small bin I labeled “Memories.”
The rest? I let it go.
I didn’t grow up with a lot of keepsakes. I don’t have jewelry to pass down.
But I do have my grandma’s quilts — because they’re warm, useful, and made to last.
And I’ve kept things like humor and curiosity, too — not physical, but still the best kind of inheritance.
Some people keep things to hold onto love.
I’ve found that writing it down works better for me.
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✨ See You Next Week
I’ll be back next week with a new prompt — just one small invitation to help you keep writing what matters.
If this memory brought something up for you, I’d love to hear it.
You can share in the comments or email me directly — either way, I’d be honored to read it.
PS: If you’re starting your own “Memory Tub,” writing one story a week is a beautiful way to fill it.
With love,
Kari
