Thinking About Legacy

What comes to mind when you think about legacy?

Old people? Famous people? Dead people?

I think of moments, a statement, a smell or feeling. Legacy, in my opinion, comes in many different forms.

Several years ago, I was at a bar, at a girlfriend’s bachelorette party. I was sitting with the only other mom at the party, while everyone else was dancing.

She was a new mom and was asking me about those no-road-map things that make being a mother a particularly tricky experience to navigate.

I shared with her my feelings of vulnerability and impermanence in relationship to being a mom. She asked me what I do about it. I gave her the example of the loving and safe touch I give my daughter (emphasis on loving, safe and appropriate). For me, safe, loving touch is something that is critical in feeling connected, close and bonded.

Essentially, what I was telling her is that I knew that whether I left this earth that night or when I am 115 years old, I know that my child will have the legacy of the warmth, security and loving touch of her mother. As a result, she will find comfort, security, love and a sense of safety in that memory and thus, pass it on to her loved ones.

That, to me, is just one of many examples of legacy.