Legacy Projects
With Memorial Day coming up, I wanted to take a moment to talk about the importance of legacy projects.
A legacy project is a physical creation that shares your personal message. It is a way to tell the story of your life to your loved ones. These projects aren’t just recording everything that happened to you over the years, they are also a way to making meaning of our lives, to sort through and process our lives, to uncover themes, patterns, and values in our lives that we want to share and pass down to our friends and family. After we die, legacy projects can be important touchstones for our loved ones to keep us in our lives.
There are so many ways to manifest a legacy project, below are a few to consider. What is most critical is for you to choose something that resonates with your personality and preferences. Are you a visual person? Have you always kept a journal? Do you love music, storytelling, talking through things? Is your “love language” food? Gravitating to a medium that has been important to you will make your project both easier for you to complete and more significant for your loved ones.
Putting it down in Writing
Getting your story down in writing is common way to capture your life’s story. You can take a chronological approach to your story or respond to a series of prompts such as capturing your significant accomplishments or listing values that are most important to you. You might prefer to write your story via pen and paper or use a digital tool, such as Storyworth, to capture your thoughts.
Making a Movie
Maybe it’s easier for you to record yourself talking about your life. You can easily do this using your laptop, smartphone, or tablet or you can also use a number of on-line services. An advantage of a video is that you not only capture your life’s story, but also a recording of your voice and facial expressions, literally bringing you to life for your loved ones.
Write Letters
More personal that a life story, these are personal letters to your loved ones. They can be filled with your thoughts on what they have meant to you, wisdom you wish to pass on, hopes for their future, or memories of your time together. You can chose to write letters to simply leave after your death or to mark significant life events that will occur for your loved ones after your death – such as weddings, graduations, or milestone birthdays.
A picture tells a thousand stories
Another great legacy project is to put together a photo book of your life. Gathering up photos over your lifetime and putting them together in a coffee table book is a great way to visually tell your life story.
Other Creative Legacy Projects
Other creative ways to mark your life could be to create a recipe book of your favorite recipes, to put together a quilt made of articles of clothing that had significance in your life, or even making a music-mix of songs that had great meaning to you.
These are just a few of the many ways you can capture your life and life-learnings to share with your loved ones after your death. Not sure how to get started? Feel free to reach out to me to see how I can help.
