Building a Legacy of Love
The word legacy has been on my mind a lot lately and has shown up in so many different areas of my life recently. It first came up at the beginning of the year during a conversation with my Brother. He shared something he'd been thinking about, and it caused me to begin reflecting on it as well. It was present when I was having my last conversation with my Grandma before she passed. We were talking about life and our loved ones and she told me she thought the whole reason we were here on earth was to love one another. And again later when I was sitting at her funeral listening to stories told about her. None of them were about the achievements she had had but all about how she showed up for her family. How she made people feel, the joy she brought to others by simply being herself. It came up over and over again when I purchased and read the book The Alchemist… thinking it was a book about overcoming difficult things and transmuting them into growth, but it read more to me like it was about discovering the path you are supposed to be following, listening to that inner wisdom and creating your “personal legend” – your legacy. It hit me as I got to experience watching my Son become a father.
As I sat with all of those moments, I realized they were all pointing to the same thing. We often think of legacy as something we leave behind someday—our accomplishments, our careers, our wealth, or the things we've built. But maybe legacy isn't something that begins when we're gone. Maybe it's something we're creating every single day through the way we love, the way we show up, and the way we make people feel.
My Grandma didn't leave behind a list of achievements that everyone talked about at her funeral. They talked about her kindness. Her generosity. The way she made people feel seen, welcomed, and loved. That was her legacy.
Watching my Son become a father reminded me that legacy isn't limited to what we pass down through our children. It also lives on through the values we embody, the compassion we model, the patience we practice, and the love we give away. Every act of kindness has the potential to ripple far beyond what we'll ever see.
Lately I've realized that maybe that's why I’ve felt so called to coaching. Not because I want to build a business or leave my name on something. I want to leave people with more hope, peace and self-trust than they had when they met me. If one person reconnects with the light within themselves because we crossed paths... and then they pass that light to someone else... maybe that's the kind of legacy worth building. If that's true, then every ordinary day becomes an opportunity to build the legacy we hope to leave behind.
