How was your holiday weekend? What did you do? Brenden and I took a trip back to my hometown to celebrate my grandmother's 85th birthday! My mom's family is LARGE....VERY large. And when you have that many to party with, family celebrations become so much fun! And they always leave me thinking about my legacy.
My grandmother turned 85 years old in August. She has five children, seventeen grandchildren and plenty of great-grandchildren to go around. Her family lives all over the United States; in California, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, and Georgia. With a family that large you can imagine there are a lot of different personalities. And thank goodness or else how boring would we all be? We all lead very different lives. Some with kids and some with dogs. Some with a stay at home job and some with traveling jobs. But at the end of the day when we all lay our heads to rest, the questions we should all ask is, "How did I impact your life? The world around me and my family near and far? What legacy am I leaving behind?"
My grandfather, my grandmother's husband of 50 years, passed away when I was only 12 years old. He was a colonel in the US Army who fought for our country for 36 years. But besides his "resume" he was a father to my mother. He was the one that walked her down the aisle; the one that taught her how to navigate this crazy world. He was my grandfather; the one I remember as funny, smart, and quiet. When he spoke, you wanted to listen. Because it was not often he was interrupting to say something that would not impact your life. He was light-hearted but loved my grandmother like crazy. Dressed to the nines in his khakis and golf shirts. Always willing to play with us: putt-putt in their backyard of Arizona, riding scooters down their street, or showing us his radio room and letting us hear the calls.
When our LARGE family gets together, I always think about Grandpa and how life would be with him there. How we are all doing now and how we all could be doing if he was here. I always think about how I am impacting the people around me. Am I leaving them with something negative to talk about or something they can look back on and say, "She is always such a joy to be around." What kind of legacy are you leaving behind? Do you live each day to the fullest with no regrets? Do not waste a single day. What do you want people to say about you when you are no longer here?
Kommentare