Inheritance and Legacy

A comment by my bff has me thinking about the things we inherit and the legacy we leave behind. Since no one gets out of here alive, I think at some point it's only natural to consider what we've done with our lives and what we will leave those we love with when we depart this world.

As a young girl, the only thing I cared to inherit was a beautiful glass-fronted bookcase handmade by my maternal grandfather. I'd watched the tender love and care he'd put into making the piece, and he and I shared a love of books. He'd actually made the bookcase as a place of honor for the many first and second edition printings of classics by authors he admired such as Charles Dickens, Jules Verne and Alexander Dumas. An appreciation which he passed on to me at an early age. When other little girls were being read bedtime story's from Little Golden Books, Pop was reading to me from Verne's "Around The World In Eighty Days". And when in his late 80's he died, I inherited his collection of books ... but not the beloved bookcase which housed them. That honor went to his daughter - my mother.

Growing up, I'd made casual comments to my mother about "Pops bookcase" someday being mine, and she'd assured me it would be so. Over the years, my mother inherited other bits and pieces from my grandparents life; a gilt music box with a faded little yellow canary atop, a brass stamp box that once had pride of place on my grandmother's desk, a beautiful Mahogany Duncan Pfyfe card table, as fashionable and timeless today as it was in the 1920's. Long after the passing of my beloved grandparents, these items served to remind me of happy days in their home; be it reading with my grandfather, or picking raspberries and putting up preserves with my grandmother.

Today Pop's bookcase showcases my favorite books along with my darling husbands' airplane collection, while grandma's Duncan Pfyfe table graces the entance to our home. The brass stamp box is once again filled with stamps, and sits ready in my office, and the little yellow canary, even more faded today, adorns a shelf where it serves as a daily reminder of the gracious and gifted woman I called Grandma.

There have been many other things I inherited from my mother and her parents, as well as my father's mother. But some of the best things I inherited, aren't "things" at all. In addition to inheriting Pops love of books and reading, I think I inherited his love of gardening and beating the birds to the best berries! From Grandma I believe I inherited my appreciation for a pretty table (bff and I joke that we are "dish whores") and my ability to spend hours wandering the aisles of stores such as Home Goods just admiring pretty dishes and linens.

Books may be enjoyable to read, furniture can make a home comfortable, and while jewelry adorns a hand, and money buys many things, the thing I've inherited that I value the most is the legacy of appreciating kindness, honesty, courage and fairness. My maternal grandparents embodied all four of these, and they reminded my siblings and me of the importance of these qualities at every opportunity.

We will each of us meet many people on the road through our lives, some will be dishonest, some will take advantage of our kindness, some may even rob us of our courage momentarily. I choose to believe that these poor souls are simply misguided or lost, and I try my best to feel pity for them. And then I remember a favorite quote (author unknown) on our refrigerator door that reads;

"In the end, it will not be our beliefs that are judged, it will be our actions and intentions. So believe what you wish, but be careful of what you do and why you do it."

Words my Grandma and Pop lived by every single day, and a gift I inherited that is more valuable than any book or bauble ever could be.

What will your children inherit from you, that will outlast mere "things"?

What will your legacy be?


Lori

The junk drawer

We had one when I was growing up, I had one when I was single, my husband and I have one now. What is it about the family "junk drawer" that we never seem to outgrow and cannot live without?

Rubber bands, paper clips, hotel note pads, pens from around the world I understand. What I don't get are the bits and pieces that seem to have no purpose, yet we cannot toss them out;

The chain piece to a door lock long ago removed
The label of a wine we once enjoyed
A CD for a version of AOL my darling husband used in 2003
A broken mechanical pencil that no one tries to fix
Fabric swatches, tile samples, business cards and book marks
An article torn from a magazine, one shoe lace, expired coupons
And keys, keys, keys ... of every size and shape and color imaginable.

Why do we save things that on the surface appear to have no purpose? Why don't we just let it go in the first place, instead of tossing it in the junk drawer? Why does my husband get that look of fear on his handsome face when I casually mention it's time to dump out the junk drawer?

What's in your junk drawer? I bet you don't even know. But I'm challenging you to explore that forbidden territory, and to do some dumping of your own!

As for me, I know what I'm going to be doing this afternoon.

Summer Day

I've always thought that two of the prettiest words in the English language are SUMMER DAY. When I think of summer days gone by, I remember laying in the grass behind my Ohio home listening to the bees buzzing in the Tulips, and the birds in the Cherry tree while I watched airplanes floating lazily through the cloudless summer sky. I remember trips to the neighborhood swim & tennis club, riding bikes with neighborhood friends, and collecting coffee cans full of flowers to present with a smile to my mother as she hung our laundry on the backyard line.

Sometimes I think how nice it would be to go back to those carefree summer days of childhood, when my toughest decision was what color ribbon I should tie around my pigtails. And then I think; WHAT? And miss all the fun I'm having right here, right now?? Not on your life!!!

In late February my darling husband surprised me by building me a raised garden bed just like those described in the wonderful book "Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew. I planted two varieties of tomato's, onions, bib lettuce, arugula, dill, rosemary, green peppers, basil, thyme, lavender, chocolate mint, strawberries, and marigolds. In the days that followed, I planted beets and two types of zucchini plants as well as cherry tomato's, both runner and bush beans and purple peppers of all things! And then I started on the flowers (a story for another day)!

What started with the intention of being a simple summer garden of bits and bobs, soon turned into something far bigger and much more joyous, and drew my husband and the apple of his eye - my 11 year old stepdaughter Chloe - out of the house into the garden. Chloe's favorite part of gardening is picking (and eating) the strawberries and cherry tomato's. She laughs with glee as she teases her father that she's eaten more than him, though she always saves at least one of something for daddy.

Husband Keith seems to be getting a kick out of how much I'm enjoying my days of leisure as a lady farmer, and is always game to let me try out a new garden-fresh ingredient at dinner. His current favorites are the sliced then grilled eight-ball zucchini drizzled with Tuscan olive oil, and the pesto I make with homegrown lemon basil. Needless to say, he also has yet to turn down my

lavender-infused Creme Brulee (made from scratch, and with homegrown lavender of course)!

Now my summer days are filled with the sound of birds fighting over figs in the tree in the orchard, bees buzzing through the French lavender and pots over-flowing with Vinca and pink Wand Flower, and the happy sight and sound of my family enjoying the fruits of my labor.

Go back to the summers of my childhood? Not a chance ... not when I'm having the time of my life!!

A word from the blog owner; please note that comments, while always welcome, are always moderated. No comments appear without my review and consent.

Wishing you a bee-buzzing, bloom filled, beautiful Summer Day!

Lori