The last few Sundays have seen me giving my respects at the graves of some very special people. Last weekend it was my mother who passed away back in February, and then this weekend it was to pay my respects for Rachel’s Grand Mother and Grand Father as well as her Dad. It was incredibly touching to see Rachel cleaning the head stones determined to leave them shining as though it would bring some comfort to her deceased loved ones.
I walked around the two cemeteries paying attention to the names of those who had been buried there, noticing their ages and the things said as a farewell message from their loved ones. What I found remarkable and sad was that all you could ascertain about these people who lives had been lived for up to 80 plus years was the roles they had played, such as father or mother, son or daughter, grandfather or grandmother. No other detail of their life, the achievements they’ve made, the legacy they left.
We spend so much of our time doing so much more yet when we pass away, and we are placed in the ground, no value seems to be placed on the memory we left for others to celebrate the life we lived. Of course within our loved ones those memories are very much held in the heart, I just feel it such a shame that our amazing feats aren’t shouted out where we lie at the end.
I jokingly said to Rachel that when I go I want at the end of my headstone these words, his legacy can be found at www.healthylifestylesliving.com, or if I family insist on writing here lies Laurence Lewis, then it better conclude with found at www.larry-lewis.com.
I find it such a motivation to create a legacy that I can be proud of so as to, in a way, live on till I’m gone. I am driven by this question:
How do you want to be remembered when you’re gone?
Well I know I want to leave a remarkable legacy! But the legacy I want to leave is like a gift, something that will make the difference to mankind. A grandiose plan, one which I believe I will achieve through the Reinvention University. After all, what point is there in living if we don’t pass on everything and everything we have learned over a lifetime.
I know I began focusing on my own life and legacy after the death of my Mum. I think this is common place, that we would all reflect on how our own life is going, and consider where we are, and where we are headed after the death of someone close.
“Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there. “Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
I know that when I eventually pass over to the other side I will have left my whole life on my blogs and on Facebook. This will leave my memory intact and enable people for a long time after to find out whom I was and what I achieved.
I hope this will bring a smile onto the faces of my daughters and my grandchildren, and maybe I’ll lose the label of an embarrassing blogger and they’ll say he left a wonderful legacy for us to visit. I’ll make them a deal, forget visiting my grave, just read my blog once a week. By then I may need all the traffic I can get.
My Real message, the thing I teach through the Reinvention University is you can become whoever you want to become, once you make a decision to change. You can write your own legacy and the best you can become .
So now start preparing your legacy by asking yourself “How do you want to be remembered when you’re gone?”
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