Leaving A Legacy

What does sowing seeds for the future mean?

I never understood what that meant until I looked it up. it means to do something that ensures a certain outcome in the future.

To me it also means leaving a legacy for future generations and that's what I want to leave behind.

I want to leave a piece of me, a piece of my family, a piece of history for future generations not only in my family, but for other families can know all about the times I live in and to know the men and women who shaped these times.

My grandparents you can say sow the seeds for the generation that came after them.

They left behind pictures, letters, journal entires, news articles, jewelry, and many other mementos that shaped their generation.

I want to leave exactly what my grandparents left. My father learned a lot form my grandparents and so did I.

My kids and their kids will learn from what I'm going to leave them and I pray the world they live in will be a better world then this one.

My legacy begins tomorrow.

Today I begin to sow the seeds for the future. First, I write in my journal about my family. My little girl Megan is seven years old. She is the light of my life.

I write in my journal all about Megan. How she loves Disney movies. How she loves too draw. How Megan loves the color pink. How Megan loves to cook with me. How Megan loves chocolate chip cookies and all things chocolate.

I include in my journal Megan's drawings and pictures of Megan.

Next thing I do is take my camera and go walk around my neighborhood and town taking pictures.

I take pictures of my house, then I go to the park and take pictures of the park, then I go to the memorial garden and take pictures so future generations will see the memorial garden in all its glory.

After the park and memorial garden, I go and take random pictures of what makes the town special like the lake and Main Street where all the stores are located and where the parades take place.

After I finish taking the pictures of my town, I go back home plug my camera into my computer and print the pictures.

I look over each picture and write a story. The first picture I look at is the one of the memorial garden.

The picture of the memorial garden is so beautiful. The roses and all the other flowers are beautiful. I love the different colors.

I remember when the town built the memorial garden. It was during the dark days of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The town wanted to do something special to honor our guys and girls in uniform. So, we all voted to build a garden.

It took us many months to build the garden. When it was finished the garden looked like a work of art. As the years went along the garden grew and kept on growing.

For the story of the memorial garden, I write: Honor those who risk their lives for others. Honor their sacrifices and bravery.

I hope for the generation that is to come that they will honor and preserve the memorial garden like we are doing.

For the rest of the pictures, I write random stuff like with my house, I write home of the Sullivan family and the park, where our children play, host parties and the fireworks celebration. Let's not forget the lake where we spend our summers swimming.

I call these pictures random pictures of Lake Devon.

I want to talk about something serious with the generation that is to come.

We as kids grew up learning about the wars of the past like both world wars, the civil war, the Vietnam war and so.

I want the generation that is to come to learn about the wars that recently been fought now and how they came to be.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I write in my journal began on a sunny September day when four passenger planes were highjacked. Two hit the World Trade Center, one hit the Pentagon and the last plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.

Thousands of lives were lost that day instantly changing the way we live. This day is refer to as 9/11.

I want Megan's generation and all that come after to learn about this day, about the lives lost, the heroes born that day and the consequences that led up to 9/11, so that Megan and the future generations won't know the horrors of war, but will know about the heroes who fought.

I wish we could say that about my generation and generations of the past. We never learned from the past and now we are living through wars.

I finish writing about 9/11 and now on to happier things. I look over pictures of Megan and decide to put the ones I believe make Megan who she is, and I put them aside.

One of the pictures I choose of Megan is one of her baking with me and another one is of Megan catching fireflies.

I set these pictures aside with all the other pictures. I write Megan Sullivan during her innocent years.

I also set aside drawings Megan drew of our family and friends. I love these drawings and I hope others love them too.

Next thing I do is look through my family heirlooms and pick out pieces of the past, the greatest generation, my grandparents generation.

These family heirlooms or as I like to call them memories of a generation of heroes because that's what my grandparents generation was.

They save a continent from evil, brought peace to the world and shape the world we live in.

This is what I want Megan and the generation that is to come to learn about these heroes so that's why I set aside letters, news articles and stories my grandparents kept and I also set aside pictures of my grandparent's.

Next thing I do is look through articles of todays most important issues like social justice, Race, Health Care, Policing, Education and Civil Rights.

I print them out and set them aside. These articles are important for Megan and the next generation to know what issues shaped our country and who we are as a people.

I look at everything I laid out and see all the pictures, drawings, everything I have written and I say to myself And you have done a remarkable job in sowing the seeds for the future.

What I take away from all that I have done is for Megan and the generation that is to come is for them to learn and to see the past, to learn from the past and never to repeat the past.

I want their future to have a better outcome than this one. I want them to live in peace.

My legacy is in front of me. I look over it one more time than I get my treasure chest and carefully put everything inside.

In the last note I write to my beautiful daughter Megan share this with the world.