Legacy

Does anyone else ever find themselves halted in the middle of a morning/afternoon/evening, pondering the "big questions"?  In the frozen vegetable section of the grocery store...between sets at the gym...in the time spent waiting for the next subway train to arrive.  I find this is happening to me more and more.  Is it because I'm continuing to grow up?  Is it because it still keeps hitting me that I'm a step-mom?  Is it because every so often the feeling I get as a Reminder that life is precious and finite comes up.  Probably all of it.  

As I'm writing now, every sentence or so I gaze out the window of my living room where I'm writing this - high above the East River in NYC - feeling both alone (which is fine) and also a part of the many millions who call this place home.  

Next week I'll talk to a group of people I've never met about what I think Legacy is and how we can all find ours and be inspired to live it out.  Being inspired about your own life is so important.  

Sometimes I know we can feel stuck, not knowing what to do next, nearly paralyzed by the heaviness of an option or two, or seven.  And anyone in the world could have been chosen to give this presentation next week.  But I was, by this one person.  Of all the people and places and ideas, I was chosen by a then-stranger to talk to people about Legacy.  Perhaps all of this gazing and stopping and considering I've done has been for a reason then - because I have been pondering this topic for as long as I can remember.  I have something to share about it that is meaningful and valuable and a message only I can deliver.  Fascinating.  

As with all of my work and offerings, my thesis about the topic is that the answer is in a feeling.  The answer is a knowing in our bodies and we need to listen.  Our legacy is not a foundation or a named building or a person - in fact, it's not a "thing" at all.  I believe that our legacy is the feeling people get about us when they hear our name.  

Ask yourself, when people who know you or know of you hear your name, what feelings will come up for them about you?  Are these the feelings you want them to have?  If so, fantastic, keep it up.  If not, then it's time for some of that soul searching in the freezer aisle I told you about.