What will I leave behind?  After I am gone, what will my descendants have to remember me by?Will it be things of mine that will be inherited?  Or will memories and feelings of love be the reasons I am remembered?  I hope it is the latter. Things can get old, fall into disrepair and even be something to get rid of immediately, instead of being kept.  They can be a burden or a nuisance.  

I hope that it will be memories of the things we did together and the way we felt (and still feel) about each other.  Memories of laughter, especially, the laughter, and the fun we had won’t be forgotten, will it? The hard times and the solving of problems that showed us what we were made of, stay with us all of our lives, don’t they?  By going through difficulties and coming out of them together, character is built and will hopefully sustain the next generation as they go on with their lives. That is what I would like to leave behind.

Will I be remembered as a person who did my best to give and love and care for others?  Or will I be remembered for my many mistakes in judgement and thoughtlessness? Will I be be remembered as someone who tried to do the right thing and apologized when I did wrong?

We can all ask ourselves the questions that I have just asked myself.  Do you think about these things in the way I do? Or am I thinking too much about me?

As I ponder about all of these things, is it an examination of conscience?  Is it a reckoning of the life I have spent and am in the process of spending the rest of my years here on earth?  Whatever it is, I hope this action of writing it all down will give me a template for the life I have yet to live.  Then maybe I will become better able to leave behind what matters the most to all my loved ones. For then, I will trust that my Creator will forgive me my sins, so that I may someday rest in God’s peace.