ONE LIFE TO LIVE/For My Grandchildren

 

ONE LIFE TO LIVE

For My Grandchildren



Without knowing it, thinking about it, or acknowledging it, you will have a legacy.  It does not seem like a big deal now, but how you live your life and what you do with your life is all you will leave behind for those you have known and loved.  

Maybe that doesn't matter to you now.  But, as you move through the dimension of this time you have been given, you come to realize that there are people who matter to you more than your own existence....and what they will remember of your time together, and of the life and legacy of your accomplishments, struggles, adventures, love, faith, and charities will be guideposts and beacons of light--- or darkness--- for their time on this mortal plane.  Either you inspire them, or you fail them.  

If that doesn't matter to you----then you have wasted your life selfishly.

You get this one life.  This one journey.  This one adventure.  You can just drift along with it, doing the same old thing everyday, until your last breath. Or you can dream big, plan big, and do big.  The first two are easier than the last.  You can stay up all night and sleep late into the next day.  Those are the ultimate and definitive traits of losers, of the drifters.  Or you can execute your dreams and plans into an awesome adventure and, so then, legacy for those who love you to remember.

Make your life count! You are special. Act like it.  God didn't predetermine winners and losers.  He left that up to us.  He gave us a life.  We live it. 

The ultimate weakness is excuse making---- I had a hard life growing up, we were poor, I wasn't treated right, I have no transportation, I have children, I can't find work that pays enough, etc. ad nauseum. The more hurdles and obstacles you overcome, the stronger your legacy.

YOU GET ONE LIFE!  

Nothing good will happen to you or for you unless you have motivation to accomplish whatever you dream, have a plan to make it happen, the perseverance and discipline to stick with it, and the tenacity to never give up.  And be good and kind while doing it. Get out of your comfort zone from time to time. 

I cannot think of one person in a history book or in my personal life that I revered and looked up to that did not get up early, work hard every day at their job, at their dreams and interests, and quality time with family.   

YOU GET ONE LEGACY.

Live your life so fully it will need no embellishment.  Be able to look yourself in the mirror and know who you are, and having made your journey, be joyful in the knowledge that it is enough.  

How you will be remembered and how you influence those you love is up to you.  Your life can be an adventure or a monotonous existence, just drifting along, that has no meaning to anyone but yourself.  My prayer is that you paddle like hell.  Drink fully of this life you have been given, even to the dregs, until the eclipse of the last glimmer of light.

Love, Poppa.



Keith Wayne Ragan, 7/18/21 copyright

Comments

  1. Ken RaganJuly 19, 2021 at 6:13 AM

    Well thought out and written. What every man in his golden years wants his children and grandchildren to have learned. Some will listen and learn and perpetuate the legacy. Alas, some will not.

    ReplyDelete

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