Community Connection ~ June 1, 2025: Capture Your Life in 6 Words

If you’ve been intrigued by our recent encouragement to explore storytelling, but overwhelmed by the sheer size of it, this is the activity for you! All it asks is that you encapsulate your life in 6 words - easy, right? Well, maybe not so easy, but this week, consider giving it a go. 

The official name for this concept is 6-Word Memoir, and it was kicked off by a man named Larry Smith. Inspired by a story about Ernest Hemingway, in 2006 Larry asked the community of people who read his magazine, SMITH, to describe their lives in exactly 6 words. The idea took off and became a movement including books, live memoir “slams,” and a website where anyone can submit a micro-memoir. In 2008, the leader of a church in Georgia even called for his congregation to compose 6-word prayers. 

The 6-word memoir is tantalizingly simple and yet deceptively challenging. It forces you to be thoughtful, decisive, and straight to the point. As you compose yours, take inspiration from some of the contributors to the 6-Word Memoir website: can you encapsulate your interests with six individual words, like “Cheerleading, Friends, Shopping, Music, Shows, Nature”? Can you describe your life’s journey, like “Going in circles, going in circles” or a formative experience, like “Sat beside me, never forgot that”? Or can you capture your perspective on life or a mantra you live by, like “You hate me? I do too” or “be kind and always stay positive” or “That sounds like a you problem”? 

Go ahead and wordsmith one (or two or twenty) of your own! If you’re feeling bold, submit it to the website. You can even post a drawing that goes with it if you’re so inclined. Perhaps you’d like to experiment with some 6-word prayers as well - they present the same challenge, of saying exactly what you mean and nothing more. 

We’d also love for you to share your 6 words with us, either in person or on Facebook or Instagram. We’ll leave you with two of our favorite celebrity 6-word memoirs, illustrating yet again the diverse possibilities offered by this simple prompt. Deepak Chopra writes that he “Danced in fields of infinite possibilities.” Meanwhile, Stephen Colbert writes of his life, “Well, I thought it was funny.”