In the wake of Martin Luther King Day, I wonder how you would evaluate your legacy. From the standpoint of fame, we all pale in comparison with the great people of history. Our legacies will have a smaller audience. But that doesn’t mean they won’t be important. 
Recognizing that legacies are sometimes about our egos, how would you like to be remembered? There’s an old saying that we are not recalled for what we did but for how we made people feel? If this is true, how are we doing? I remember each of the people from the family photo taken in 1945. (I’m at bottom, left, in the hands of my young mom, who is now 95.)
Consider the people you know who have passed away- family members for example. How do you remember them in terms of what they did versus how they made you feel?…
My late father (with me, at left, in 1945) was very concerned with how he would be remembered. When
he typed up his autobiography, he listed lots of things he had done.
But what I recall is the rich quilt of memories he left for me and
my three siblings. And I remember how he made me feel. He was always my biggest fan.
I remember the way he made us laugh and the way he laughed himself – until tears flowed. I also remember his stern example of morality, which often frightened me. And I remember all the efforts he made to create fun – endless games, family trips, dinner table conversation.
A lifelong leader in the YMCA (fifty years) my dad believed deeply in the Y’s triangle of the balance among spirit, mind and body. The older I get, the more I find I resemble him.
But legacy and memory are unpredictable things. We are so often recalled for reasons different than what we think. Someone we imagine we have helped may have forgotten us entirely. Someone we have forgotten may recall us more clearly than we would ever have thought.
Perhaps the best way to leave a loving legacy is not to consider our legacy at all. The finest legacy may simply be that we did our best to Live Love. As long as we do that, our legacy takes care of itself.
-Erie Chapman
Journal of Sacred Work 
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