Legacy...

I had written an entirely different blog for today and then a couple of events changed my mind... first an editorial I read yesterday. a visit to the cemetery today, and Mother's Day on Sunday.  

The interesting editorial was in the local newspaper... the writer talked about a legacy.  A friend of his had inadvertently been listed as dead.  People were calling, sending flowers.  His friend said how fascinating it would have been to attend his own funeral... to hear what people would say about him.  The writer admitted that it was something that he had thought about... what would his legacy be?  He believed that we were like a wave that goes out through humanity touching a few or many.  And that our wave continues.  I wonder... my Dad used to say our lives were like putting your hand in water and pulling it out... there are ripples for awhile, but finally the water becomes calm again.  So which is true?

As I visited my Mother's grave today, I thought about his piece... my husband said, "Look how many of these graves are never visited."   And I looked around at the acres and acres of headstones and wondered what their legacies had been?  Is their wave still going, touching people even now, or had the ripple in life that they made, ended.    

I have always believed that we need to say what we feel before it's too late.  How many times have we thought, 'I wish I had told him I loved him.'  Or 'what a great job she had done'... or 'what a wonderful sister or brother they had been'... but we didn't and now it's too late.  I'm going to make that part of my legacy... tell people how I feel, how much they mean to me, what their impact has been on me and my family.  Wouldn't that be wonderful if we could all do that?  What a wave we could create!

One of my favorite old songs has always been by Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias - "To All the Girls I've Loved Before..."  Some of the words are so touching and so true...

'To all the girls I've loved before
Who traveled in and out my door
I'm glad they came along
I dedicate this song

To all the girls I've loved before
To all the girls I once caressed
And may I say, I've held the best
For helping me to grow, I owe a lot, I know
To all the girls I've loved before..."

We are all touched, changed by all those who come in and out our 'doors'... I thank them all.  I hope that I have touched them, changed them in some small way as well... they are all part of who I am, my life and my legacy.

Happy Mother's Day to all and hug your children!!  They are and will be a large part of our legacy.

Till, 

Judi