Building Lasting Memories
Happy New Year! I hope you had a rewarding and relaxing time with friends and family over the holidays. As you may know, I traveled halfway across the world to Find rest, relaxation, and recreation.
I am very excited about 2016, so much hope and promise! The whole point of The Find is how not to be boring and create lasting memories; this is certainly one of my New Year’s Resolutions. It is my attempt to eliminate the risk that may discourage many people from trying new things. I intend to do it for you since I have the desire to try new things and the willingness to fail more than most.
This week I will show you how to preserve these memories, an additional way to create some, and a classic movie (you probably have never seen) that memorializes them…
I have a short memory. I have a difficult time remembering where I went three Winter Breaks ago, let alone lunch last week. Maybe it is the good fortune of being very busy with adventurous activities, or maybe it was the concussions playing football; either way, activities start to blend together over time. I presume I am not alone.
Therefore, I have been looking for an easy and beautiful way to create a memory palace for my family trips. Facebook and Instagram serve a function, but don’t capture the texture of a trip unless one is overposting (you know who you are). A journal or scrapbook requires too much effort, whether its saving scraps, printing pictures, and it never gets done (at least in our house).
I want to introduce you to Bonjournal which bridges the simplicity of Facebook and the texture and detail of a journal/scrapbook. It is an app that allows you to capture a trip, one topic, story or day at a time. It is a very effective writing program and easily incorporates photos. I have tried other solutions and find this to be the most effective.
You can even make your Bonjournal available to your friends and family so they can follow your trip in real time; no need to catch them up when the trip is over. I found myself taking more pictures with my phone and typing up the events of the day during the downtimes (on the plane, in a taxi, after ordering lunch, etc.). It also is capable of capturing all the events of a trip: restaurants, activities, moods, and feelings. There is a function where you can search other people’s journals, a function which I’m not sure I value; you can search by say Noosa, Australia and see what worked for others.
If you are planning on traveling to Australia, or interested in my travels there, please email me separately and I will send you a link (if I know you and you’re not a creepy stalker)!
My family loves playing games. Vacation is the perfect time to sit around with the family and play games. Most games don’t work for all ages, but we have found one that does…#hashtags!
It is a game that can be played anywhere: at dinner, sitting around the house or hotel, or even at the pool. The objective of the game is simple — one person chooses a #hashtag from a list of hashtags on a card, the other players respond to the #hashtag with a #hashtag of their own and then they turn them in. One player reads the responses out loud and then everyone tries to guess who wrote which response and awarded points accordingly. An example is #useless … some of my family’s responses, #toiletpaper, #jackblackmovies, #dailyshowers and #dads!
The game is very addicting, allows your children to demonstrate their sense of humor, shows them your sense of humor, and is very revealing and insightful. It can be very clean or it can be very inappropriate; this variability is important and not possible in Cards Against Humanity (always inappropriate, very fun for adults). Enjoy this game at home on a freezing cold night too!
There are very few activities that require the complete absence of other activities and distractions like watching movie. I know I am either on a plane without internet and/or have plenty of free time when I find myself watching a movie. Vacation is a perfect time to catch up on all the ones I missed. However, the Castle is a movie that I missed by 18 years and I won’t let the same thing happen to you!
The Castle is a classic Australian movie about a humble, decent man who defends his home from Australia’s version of eminent domain. The story is brilliantly told from the perspective of his son who places his father on a pedestal…every father’s dream. It is Australia’s version of Forest Gump and really captures the ethos of that country.
This movie struck a raw nerve inside me. I must caution you that it is a very Australian, even more so than Crocodile Dundee. Through my travels, I found most Aussies to share the lead character’s admirable trait of sincerity. This movie properly and precisely defines the difference between a house and a home, and thus the importance of family and a shared history. This movie enhances the relevance of our memories (Bonjournal) and the importance of small moments (sitting around playing #hashtags). Watch is on Netflix or Amazon Prime when you get a moment!
Consider Bonjournal, #hashtags, and The Castle Found!