Legacies.

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Legacies.

  • SaraJane Case

    SaraJane Case is a blogger, photographer, bourbon drinker, and all around lover of people. She's passionate about surrounding herself with those who are genuine and open, and also,...
Earlier this year, my father's mother passed away.  She was 96 and as brazen as ever the last time I saw her. While it feels like she lived a complete life and I know that she was ready to go, there’s a part of me that never expected her to pass. In my mind she is still living in her little cottage in rural Florida. She’s drinking tea in the sunshine and tending to her grape vines. She’s chain smoking cigarettes and insisting that you eat. She’s packing you up vegetables from the garden before you go and making sure you eat a cookie from the cookie jar. It’s got me thinking about legacies. The sort of thing we’ll leave behind when we go. My granny didn’t cure cancer. She didn’t run a fortune 500 company. But, she did walk a mile from her house to my mom’s with handfuls of home cooked meals while my mom was pregnant with me. Just so she wouldn’t have to cook. She did raise 6 children, 18 grandchildren, 35 great-grand children, and 7 great-great grand children molding each of us in our own way. She may not be remembered by an entire world of people, but, she will be remembered deeply by a few. And those people will pass along the lessons that she taught them onto other people and so on until just maybe the entire world is affected after all. So, what are the things we want to be remembered for?  What is the ripple we want to start in our universe? I think for me it’s the idea that we are all worth something. There are no meaningless lives and no insignificant acts of kindness. I want to be remembered drinking coffee with my journal in hand, hugging people and meaning it, dancing until the wee hours of the morning, laughing and being silly. I want to pass along my passion for life and the need to explore. My eagerness to try new things and my inability to remain complacent. I’ll probably also be remembered for being stubborn, indecisive, and impulsive. Hopefully, the picture will be clear and whole. That I’ll not only be remembered for the good but also the difficult. That, those who loved me, loved me because I sometimes failed and I couldn’t resist the urge to give advice even when it wasn’t wanted. Learning to see legacies as the little things we do every single day is such a freeing thing for me. While I would still love to accomplish great things in life, it’s important for me to remember that the way I interact with people in my daily life may just be the great things that I accomplish. That, I’m pretty sure I’ll be just fine with. with love and legacies, Sarajane.