Creating Legacy

When I teach about legacy, I give examples like this that I call "participation only" legacies. Everyone can consciously create a legacy. It's about more than money.
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"My name's Raymond. I'm 73. I work the parking lot at St. Joseph's Hospital. Minimum wage, orange vest, a whistle I barely use. Most people don't even look at me. I'm just the old man waving cars into spaces.
But I see everything.

Like the black sedan that circled the lot every morning at 6 a.m. for three weeks. Young man driving, grandmother in the passenger seat. Chemotherapy, I figured. He'd drop her at the entrance, then spend 20 minutes hunting for parking, missing her appointments.

One morning, I stopped him. "What time tomorrow?"
"6:15," he said, confused.
"Space A-7 will be empty. I'll save it."
He blinked. "You... you can do that?"
"I can now," I said.

Next morning, I stood in A-7, holding my ground as cars circled angrily. When his sedan pulled up, I moved. He rolled down his window, speechless. "Why?"
"Because she needs you in there with her," I said. "Not out here stressing."
He cried. Right there in the parking lot.

Word spread quietly. A father with a sick baby asked if I could help. A woman visiting her dying husband. I started arriving at 5 a.m., notebook in hand, tracking who needed what. Saved spots became sacred. People stopped honking. They waited. Because they knew someone else was fighting something bigger than traffic.
But here's what changed everything, A businessman in a Mercedes screamed at me one morning. "I'm not sick! I need that spot for a meeting!"

"Then walk," I said calmly. "That space is for someone whose hands are shaking too hard to grip a steering wheel."

He sped off, furious. But a woman behind him got out of her car and hugged me. "My son has leukemia," she sobbed. "Thank you for seeing us."

The hospital tried to stop me. "Liability issues," they said. But then families started writing letters. Dozens. "Raymond made the worst days bearable." "He gave us one less thing to break over."

Last month, they made it official. "Reserved Parking for Families in Crisis." Ten spots, marked with blue signs. And they asked me to manage it.

But the best part? A man I'd helped two years ago, his mother survived, came back. He's a carpenter. Built a small wooden box, mounted it by the reserved spaces. Inside? Prayer cards, tissues, breath mints, and a note,

"Take what you need. You're not alone. -Raymond & Friends"
People leave things now. Granola bars. Phone chargers. Yesterday, someone left a hand-knitted blanket.
I'm 73. I direct traffic in a hospital parking lot. But I've learned this: Healing doesn't just happen in operating rooms. Sometimes it starts in a parking space. When someone says, "I see your crisis. Let me carry this one small piece."

So pay attention. At the grocery checkout, the coffee line, wherever you are. Someone's drowning in the little things while fighting the big ones.

Hold a door. Save a spot. Carry the weight no one else sees.
It's not glamorous. But it's everything."
Let this story reach more hearts....
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By Mary Nelson

Just a little note I shared with the folks on my Creating Legacy mailing list today - thought you might enjoy it, too:

On MLK Day how were you thinking about YOUR legacy? Hi ! Just a note to say a quick Creating Legacy hello and share a few thoughts with you. I realize this is my Masterful Life Redesign letterhead, but legacy is still at its heart. In fact, it was born from my Creating Legacy program. But that's another story... If you've been on my ma...

Leave a legacy of kindness. Here's a great way to start, today - with a gift for your whole month. It was a gift to me, too - pass it on :)

www.actionforhappiness.org

A fantastic legacy of music and culture, and legacy of work to preserve and share it. Wow. What sort of project like this would you love to do or be part of?

Alan Lomax’s Massive Music Archive Is Online: Features 17,000 Historic Blues & Folk Recordings A huge treasure trove of songs and interviews recorded by the legendary folklorist Alan Lomax from the 1940s into the 1990s have been digitized and made available online for free listening.

Thank you Dr. Gladys West for helping us ALL to not have to stop ask for directions!
http://www.wsfa.com/2018/12/19/year-old-mathematician-whose-calculations-helped-create-gps-inducted-into-air-force-pioneers-hall-fame/

87-year-old mathematician whose calculations helped create GPS inducted into Air Force Pioneers Hall of Fame An 87-year-old doctor whose programming of accurate earth models led to the current GPS system has been inducted into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame.

The happiness that giving looks like.

"One oven, 22 turkeys: How a woman cooks 700 Christmas dinners for those in need"

One oven, 22 turkeys: How a woman cooks 700 Christmas dinners for those in need Carolyn Marshall stays up all night on Christmas Eve to carry on her mother’s legacy.

I like the sort of legacy that is a combination of vocation and contribution - a beautiful example of creating legacy by living it. That may be the best way to approach legacy.

Hoping is about aspiration. Aspiring to create more of anything you love, and can make a whole-hearted positive difference, is an important contribution.

Giving others enjoyment is a lovely choice.

How can you make a difference on this sort of basis?

When?!😥

A great source of holiday gifts, especially for the folks for whom you have a hard time finding a gift.
Or at any other time or occasion throughout the year...!

#GiveHeifer to End Hunger Farm animals donation help reduce hunger and poverty. Equip communities with sustainable tools that enable them to provide for themselves.