Thursday, March 22, 2007 Older Editions

Wisdom along the way

By April Guilmet

Growing up, Terry Marotta was often advised not to talk to strangers. Luckily, she didn't listen.

Marotta, a syndicated columnist and author, will visit the Andover Senior Center on Thursday, April 5. As part of the center's noontime Brown Bag Lunch series, she hopes to impress on her audience the importance of living in the moment.

And to live in the moment, the Winchester resident said, one must be open to chatting up strangers.

"You have some pretty funny conversations that way," she said. "Other times, you have discussions that are amazingly touching and heart-opening."

Being present in the moment means having fun even when you're stuck in line at the pharmacy, Marotta said. It means smiling at strangers when you pass, and looking them in the eye. Most importantly, it means being thankful for what you have.

In the hour-long discussion, Marotta plans to discuss the joys of living in an open-hearted fashion, offer samples of the humor and wisdom she has encountered along the way and share excerpts from her most recent book, The Trail of Breadcrumbs, which teaches people just how to begin on the practice of recording their thoughts and impressions. She plans to offer tips on how people can write down memories for their loved ones to later read.

"To say what we saw is almost to offer prayers of thanksgiving," says Marotta, "and as humans we are born storytellers."

In her 27 years as a syndicated columnist, Marotta is well versed in the art of people-watching, and said she finds beauty, or at least humor, in the most mundane daily experiences.

She has given presentations on speaking one's truth everywhere from schools and colleges to libraries and businesses, though wherever she goes, she said one thing holds true: we all have a story to tell.

Years ago, Marotta taught a writing course at her local senior center.

"These people I sat with once a month were so full of courage and cheerfulness," Marotta said.

At first, many of them were hesitant to write.

"They told me they had nothing interesting had ever happened to them or wondered what people would think of them if they told a story," Marotta said. "So we decided the subtitle of the course would be 'Who Cares What They Think Anyway.' "

Marotta recalled how one by one, her students would read her their works. The end results, which often moved her to tears, were compiled into a book called The Mountains We Raised. The book's title comes from a Robert Frost poem.

Next month, she hopes others too will be inspired to "raise their own mountains."

"This talk is about learning to live in such a way that you can't wait to go home and tell someone what you saw," Marotta said.

Living in this fashion is something that must be taught, she added.

"People have forgotten that everything that delights us comes from each other, not from some packaged source," Marotta said. "It comes only from human contact."