What is a legacy?
What is a legacy?
……planting seeds in a garden you never get to see…..
Just watched and re-watched Hamilton. If you have not, I highly recommend! Worth the investment in Disney Plus if you don’t already have it, which also owns Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, and National Geographic so it’s a win-win all around. No, I did not get endorsement from Disney to write this.
In a scene with Alexander Hamilton reflecting on his now certain death, he articulates this truth I believe we all grapple with at some point if we are introspective at all. What will our legacy be? When we are gone, what will others say about us? How will we be remembered? Who will tell our story? Did we do enough?
It’s haunting to see him struggling with this reality, a chilling reminder of our impermanence in this world. Coupled with this reality is the truth we cannot control what our legacy is going to be. We can try, but in this we are absolutely fighting a losing battle. Our legacy is in the lands of others. It is an illusion to think our deeds or accomplishments will be what is remembered about us. What if it has nothing to do with these things at all?
What I am growing to understand is this: legacy is not something we can control or contrive. In that understanding, there is freedom to live with more authenticity as we cannot influence what our legacy will be anyway. If we all believed this to be true, and just LIVED in a manner that felt real and purposeful and fulfilling, would not our legacy perhaps reflect this effort? Maybe…. If we were more engaged with others around us rather than feeling like we had to MAKE a DIFFERENCE for the sake of creating an image that we want the world to see, would not our legacy remember us kindly for this effort? Maybe. Certainly it would feel better in the journey if we behaved in a consistent manner to how we would like to be remembered. How we would like……
I’ve raised (& still “raising”) 2 beautiful, smart, creative, compassionate, passionate and loving sons. I have instilled in them the sense of right, of faith, of doing good for good’s sake and not to do for an instagram moment. I have loved them fiercely, and cared for them with every fiber of my being. I have no doubt in my mind that THEY KNOW I’d give my life for either one of them if I needed to do so. In all I have done in my life, giving birth and raising these two boys has brought me the most joy and pride. There is nothing else that compares to this for me. If that is my legacy, then wow! I’ve won the competition if there is such a thing. They will (I hope) out live me. They will remember me. They will make sure others remember me as kind, and a forever seeker of truth, and love, and peace in the world. I cannot imagine a greater legacy than living on through those you love.
And may be that is the lesson after all….worry less, and love more. Control less, and be curious more. Plan less…and live more…….
May be part of our journey is in learning to BE in the moment versus trying to create the moment that will become a memory…… Be in the moment…and allow our legacy to be whatever it is meant to be.
Wishing you all peace in your journey and the freedom to know when you give all that you have, you have succeeded. So be at peace…..
