“Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them.” George Eliot, Author.
If you’re like me, you want to be remembered by your loved ones long after you’re gone. You want to know that your time here mattered, and that you made a lasting impression.
It’s not because we want to be memorialized as saints, or, in my case, as Mother Teresa; but because we want to leave our people with the best parts of ourselves. Especially with those who are young and may only know us through what they read from us.
Essentially, we want to leave our loved ones with our voice. Not so much the audible one that echoes in the room, but the one that whispers in the winds of the pages turned.
Through archived letters, journals, stories, notes jotted in the margins of favorite books, and even in our old recipe cards, they can hear our voice if we’re willing to take the time to wield our pen.
I’ve often referred to our writings as our paper trail. But really, our writings aren’t just about the trail we leave, but about the lives we shape along the way and long after we’re gone.
If it’s true that we really only die when we are forgotten, then I say, let’s not soon be forgotten.
Let’s do the things necessary to live on in the hearts of our loved ones and let’s work to make our immortality a reality.
In our time here, I’ll share inspiration and practical tools to help you leave behind the best parts of who you are. You are worth knowing. Your story matters. It has shaped you. It created moments you’re proud of, as well as moments you’d like to forget. You’re not unique in those feelings. We all have them.
But as author Sholom Aleichem said, “When you die, others who think they know you, will concoct things about you… Better pick up a pen and write it yourself, for you know yourself best.”
If we’re willing to write our story, what we felt, who we loved and what we hoped for, we’ll find grace. And love. And we might even find forgiveness.
And when our time here on earth has passed and our loved ones sort through our keepsakes, may they find our words of love written in personal messages that will ring in their hearts long after our voice has become silenced. May they find the hope in the faith we held in the One with Whom we will spend our eternity.
Until next time, find your words; leave your legacy.
