The Bog of Memories is the repository of your past.  Bogs, due to anaerobic conditions involved in their formation, are excellent preservers of historical records.  Peat bogs in Europe have kept ancient bodies so well preserved that researchers can determine the contents of their last meal, their means of death, and their final facial expressions.  Peat bogs are also repositories for records of past environments.  Ancient pollen (a record of past vegetation), sand (a record of past wind strength and deposition modes) and charcoal (a record of past fires) are trapped in peat bogs.  Peat bogs can also record ancient plants through presence of macrofossils, and ancient chronologies through radiocarbon dating. To access this information, the landscape must be cored. LifeCores come from within the Bog of Memories, so following the instructions for creating a LifeCore relates can help you understand your life history.

Memory, like ancient bog records, is not easy to decipher. Often rather than entire preserved bodies, you have only bits and pieces of memory as the material to weave your story.  Memory, like science, is a story based on the best evidence available.  Memories are reconstructed each time we remember something, so falsities, errors and revisioning can also occur.  Besides the pitfalls, bogs are work exploring.

Here are some questions to help you get started with your explorations:

What is your first memory (what YOU remember, not what others have told you about your past)?  What are your most joyful memories?  Your most painful memories?  Your most erotic memories? Your most embarrassing memories?  How has your perspective of these memories changed over time?  How do you make sense of your past?  What memories do you favor remembering?  What memories do you try to deny?  How would you map or creatively depict these memories?