Legacy....something received from the past

I have SO MUCH PAST in my house.

Grandmothers quilts...Granddaddy's poems...Mom's cups n saucers....Mother's needlepoint...

I have stuff from SO MANY people....I mean, at this point in my life, my WHOLE HOUSE is a LEGACY.

And. No. One. Wants. It.

So what do I DO with it all?

I appreciate the work, the money, the time, the energy, the skill, the emotion, the love, the LIFE that is IN each of these legacies ...

...BUT, I cannot make them mean to others what they mean to me so, I must, as the popular new song says, "let it GO!"

 I am slowly doing that.

Getting rid of THINGS.

To places and people who can use them or will like them or for whom they are new....

....BUT, that does not mean I am getting rid of the legacy.


The legacy is in:
the tender stitches of my tough Grandmother...
the poetry of a man who taught himself to read and write...
the tea sipped from 'touch of class' bone china by the daughter of a true 'touch of class' working class immigrant...
the cross stitch creativity of a woman BORN to express somehow someway...




You get my drift.

IN each item is the legacy and that is the gift...

...or not.

I really did NOT want my grandma's life size doll that she dressed and sat in the window to watch  kids walk home from school.

Just saying.


But, even that had its legacy...a grown woman who was but a child.

I learned from ALL these people of my past.

I learned what to let go of and what to embrace.

THAT is the legacy.

NOT the THING but the LIFE LESSON IN that thing.

That is what remains.

Not a bad reminder for this great-granny.

Because my things and my life lessons will have to be let go of or embraced.

SOOOO, this year, I plan to pay REAL close attention to what my things say about MY LIFE.

Someday people will be looking at my stuff and saying, “THIS is my legacy?"

                            

                                        Which is why I just 'let go' of my Tickle Me Elmo...

Just saying.

                                                                     

But I have TWO of these

   that I shall forever 'embrace'!

  

Legacy....something received from the past

(to, hopefully, take into the future)