Legacy

This is Xavier. He is my first great-grandchild. He is a week old today and just the sweetest little boy ever. I thought that when my first grandchild was born (his mother), I would never be so moved and humbled again. I was wrong. Holding this little guy in my arms led me down a whole different path.

I was only in my 40's when my granddaughter was born. The idea of being a wisdom teacher to her did not come until I had gotten much older. Now as I look at her child what comes to mind is what kind of a legacy am I leaving for him and the other children to come?. What do I want them to know and remember about me so that they can tell the ones who come after I'm gone? This is really heady stuff and something that I have been rolling over in my mind since the moment I saw him. It's not that I haven't thought of it before, especially as I have 4 other grandchildren, the youngest only 3. I think the importance of it has hit me harder this time because I am 20 years older and there is so much I want them to know about who I am and what I believe in before I am no longer around to tell them myself.

I want them to know that I value truth and integrity highly My father once told me that a person will be remembered by how well they kept their word. I have made it a cornerstone of my life that if I give my word to someone, even if I regret doing so afterwards, I will keep it to the best of my ability. I believe that there is nothing that can't be cured with love and time to heal. I believe in the magic that is still in this world if we just take the time to stand still and look for it. I believe in respecting all living things (even the creepy and scary ones) and even the ones that would do us harm. I believe that no child should go without food, shelter and love, and that there is enough of all three to go around the world a thousand times if we just stopped thinking about ourselves so much and others more. I believe in going forward with your dreams regardless of what other people say or think. I believe that the way I experience the world is my choice and I can chose happiness and have it. Finally, I believe in leaving the world in better shape than when I got here for the next generation and the next seven to come.

So that's who your great-grandma is, Xavier, along with being an avid teddy bear collector and a lover of gardening. Who knows? Maybe when you are old enough I will take you into the garden as I did with your Mom and show you where the magic lives.

And so it is.