Leaving A Legacy

What does this mean to leave a legacy?  For me, it means what do I stand for?  How do I want to be remembered?  It has struck me in my own life that as time goes by and I get older, the meaning of everything changes dramatically, thank goodness!  Coming to understand the legacy of my elders has compounded, particularly after my mothers death, I became so much more aware of the fact that they had all gone and I was left. I was the elder holding the torch for future generations.  Yikes. 

Firstly I had many layers of understanding and insight into exactly what has been left to me, which indicates that legacy is not something we understand in the moment but can actually bear itself over time, particularly when a family member dies or has a conversation with you and something comes to light that you didn't know.

I was visiting my father's cousin a few years ago whom I hadn't seen for a very long time.  She told me about an aunt in our family who had spent 48 years in the Democratic Republic Of the Congo and adopted over 30 children!  WOW! Ok well that's a new story, to me.  I became obsessed with finding out more.  Just before the pandemic I had made up my mind to go to the small township where she spent most of her life and meet my Congolese family.  I had already made contact with a member of the royalty of that province who had invited me, pleased I had made contact and who himself, had be best friends with one of her adopted children!

Plans were disrupted, unfortunately.  Point here is:  this legacy has changed my perspective. Who else is lurking in my families with stories that help me piece together and make sense of  my life?  It has been an incredible process to reflect on her courage, her faith and her ability to stand for something that is much greater than herself.