Carrying on a Legacy
My next post was going to be about my living room rearranging project or my office clean up, but it's not. I just read this by Jennie Zimmerman and it set my mind to whirling. Jennie, I'm not trying to copy you and I'm not sure what I'm about to say even goes with your letter, but my mind rambled on in this direction.
It hurts so bad to lose someone we leave. I'm getting a real collection of friends and family waiting for me up in heaven and I'm looking forward to the day I can go and see them. The whole death thing is still so very scary and all that, but I think once I'm passed that and can see Jesus and all my loved ones, it sounds pretty awesome. But in the meantime, what happens?
I was going through my collection of cards that I've gotten since we moved up here, so about 15 months worth. When you have a baby and lose a father and people remember you daughter's first birthday, you get a real accumulation of cards in a year's time. I kept finding cards from Cheryl--I think I might have 4 or 5 cards from her in the last year. Talk about extremely special!!!! I can smile when I look at them because Cheryl always spelled my name wrong, but that's just one more special thing about the cards now!!! But the real thing that got me to thinking this morning was Cheryl's caring. She cared enough to send me a card. She gave Dave and I an anniversary gift 6 weeks after Nicole died--just a thinking of you. She sent me a gift at Nicole's first birthday and she gave some awesome baby gifts. And it struck me-- this is something I can do and should be doing. I can carry on this legacy: I can care for others in the way Cheryl cared for me. No, I can't do it exactly like Cheryl--I don't want to. I'm not Cheryl and to try would only cause pain for me and for those I am trying to care about. So, I want to be that person that thinks about others and not only thinks puts actions to her thoughts.
We talk about my dad and how he always just tackled the job that needed done. He didn't mopse around about the bad job, the crawling around in that dirty, yucky crawlspace or that complain about the awful plumbing job he had to do. The job was there, he was hired for it and so he bit the bullet and did it. I can learn from that too; instead of procrastinating on the yucky jobs, I need to just do it and do it right away.
There are so many things to be learned from the people around me--I think I should sit up and take notice and learn now before they are gone. It's way less painful this way.
So here's my challenge to myself--send some cards this week. It's been on my to-do list for the last month. This week is the week it will get done and while I'm at it, add someone new to my list and send them a card as well. It doesn't have to be a fancy card, it can just be a little note card or even just a note on a piece of paper. I have piles of paper and note cards and I have a cricut sitting at my house that I'm sure would love to be used to make a card. So get up and get to it and brighten someone's day this week. I'll try and report back next week with my success at carrying it out.
It hurts so bad to lose someone we leave. I'm getting a real collection of friends and family waiting for me up in heaven and I'm looking forward to the day I can go and see them. The whole death thing is still so very scary and all that, but I think once I'm passed that and can see Jesus and all my loved ones, it sounds pretty awesome. But in the meantime, what happens?
I was going through my collection of cards that I've gotten since we moved up here, so about 15 months worth. When you have a baby and lose a father and people remember you daughter's first birthday, you get a real accumulation of cards in a year's time. I kept finding cards from Cheryl--I think I might have 4 or 5 cards from her in the last year. Talk about extremely special!!!! I can smile when I look at them because Cheryl always spelled my name wrong, but that's just one more special thing about the cards now!!! But the real thing that got me to thinking this morning was Cheryl's caring. She cared enough to send me a card. She gave Dave and I an anniversary gift 6 weeks after Nicole died--just a thinking of you. She sent me a gift at Nicole's first birthday and she gave some awesome baby gifts. And it struck me-- this is something I can do and should be doing. I can carry on this legacy: I can care for others in the way Cheryl cared for me. No, I can't do it exactly like Cheryl--I don't want to. I'm not Cheryl and to try would only cause pain for me and for those I am trying to care about. So, I want to be that person that thinks about others and not only thinks puts actions to her thoughts.
We talk about my dad and how he always just tackled the job that needed done. He didn't mopse around about the bad job, the crawling around in that dirty, yucky crawlspace or that complain about the awful plumbing job he had to do. The job was there, he was hired for it and so he bit the bullet and did it. I can learn from that too; instead of procrastinating on the yucky jobs, I need to just do it and do it right away.
There are so many things to be learned from the people around me--I think I should sit up and take notice and learn now before they are gone. It's way less painful this way.
So here's my challenge to myself--send some cards this week. It's been on my to-do list for the last month. This week is the week it will get done and while I'm at it, add someone new to my list and send them a card as well. It doesn't have to be a fancy card, it can just be a little note card or even just a note on a piece of paper. I have piles of paper and note cards and I have a cricut sitting at my house that I'm sure would love to be used to make a card. So get up and get to it and brighten someone's day this week. I'll try and report back next week with my success at carrying it out.
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