It always amazes me JP how like-minded we are. While it's not for grandkids (and I know your documenting is for you too), it IS about not losing the past and preserving a legacy as you get older. You're doing it well!
Thank you Melanie. I think that’s one reason your work has felt familiar to me too. Different reasons for documenting it, but the same instinct not to let the past disappear. I really appreciate this.
JP, this one landed differently. I have spent the last year writing after a life I thought was already built changed completely. The finished pieces will show my sons what I eventually understood. The archive may show them how long it took me to understand it. The wrong turns, abandoned drafts, things I believed before I knew better. Maybe that is the inheritance. Not leaving them a polished version of their father, but enough of the trail that they can see he had to become him too.
Yeah, I think that’s exactly it. The inheritance may be less about what we leave them and more about what they get to understand about us later. I wrote about that in Your Kids Don’t Just Want Your Money, They Want Your Story. It was one of my first Legacy pieces, back when almost nobody was reading them. 😂
JP, that distinction is it. What we leave behind and what they eventually understand about us are not the same inheritance. I missed that earlier piece. I’m going back to read it now, brother. Appreciate you sending it.
no one will remember the hours you scrolled. This hits home. I have stacks of journals dated from. 2020 to current and my daughter always asks me mom what are you going to do with all these journals. I tell her they're for your kids or your brothers kids to read about the time I had and what I was doing and what was going on in our little family during that time. It's like a little gift yo the future I tell her.
That's awesome Crystal! I love it. “A little gift to the future” is exactly what those journals are. Someday your family will get to know not just what happened but what life actually felt like while you were living it.
It always amazes me JP how like-minded we are. While it's not for grandkids (and I know your documenting is for you too), it IS about not losing the past and preserving a legacy as you get older. You're doing it well!
Thank you Melanie. I think that’s one reason your work has felt familiar to me too. Different reasons for documenting it, but the same instinct not to let the past disappear. I really appreciate this.
JP, this one landed differently. I have spent the last year writing after a life I thought was already built changed completely. The finished pieces will show my sons what I eventually understood. The archive may show them how long it took me to understand it. The wrong turns, abandoned drafts, things I believed before I knew better. Maybe that is the inheritance. Not leaving them a polished version of their father, but enough of the trail that they can see he had to become him too.
Yeah, I think that’s exactly it. The inheritance may be less about what we leave them and more about what they get to understand about us later. I wrote about that in Your Kids Don’t Just Want Your Money, They Want Your Story. It was one of my first Legacy pieces, back when almost nobody was reading them. 😂
https://www.ctrlaltreinvent.com/p/your-kids-dont-just-want-your-money
JP, that distinction is it. What we leave behind and what they eventually understand about us are not the same inheritance. I missed that earlier piece. I’m going back to read it now, brother. Appreciate you sending it.
no one will remember the hours you scrolled. This hits home. I have stacks of journals dated from. 2020 to current and my daughter always asks me mom what are you going to do with all these journals. I tell her they're for your kids or your brothers kids to read about the time I had and what I was doing and what was going on in our little family during that time. It's like a little gift yo the future I tell her.
That's awesome Crystal! I love it. “A little gift to the future” is exactly what those journals are. Someday your family will get to know not just what happened but what life actually felt like while you were living it.