Legacy

This word brings up a lot of emotions in me.  This simple word was one that I debated with someone years ago.  I expressed my perception of the word legacy and they theirs.  At the time I composed what might have been received as a scathing letter listing the legacies that I felt were being laid before me from the matriarchs of my family.  The letter was something that later in life was brought up but was laid to rest.  Today I am haunted by my words from my young perspective as a high school girl.
News yesterday of the passing of my grandma rocked me to my core.  This is the same grandma that some fourteen years ago received a hand written letter from me expressing my dissatisfaction of her choices in life.  In the past fourteen years she and I had come to an understanding of each other.
Being her first grandchild I think there was a special place in her heart for me.  I choose for a while to see her in the light that the others in my family had, a wandering gypsy with no real roots or connection to family.  Not until I became a mother myself did I see her in another light.  I decided to see past her quarkey ways of always remembering stories way out of proportions and her dramatic antics as just who she was… for good or bad, I became capable of shrugging them off and just seeing her.
I truly feel that over the years she and I grew up a lot!  She grew some roots to one location and became more comfortable in herself with who she wanted to be and who she wanted others to see her as.  I became a mom, I have learned to see past my initial frustrations of people and some of my judgmental perceptions of those around me, I too have become more forgiving as I see my hypocritical ways.  We became better woman I strongly feel, of course each on our own journey but jointly through the encouragement of one another.
So with those things said, I can say this… Cawne LeNorth, you have left a legacy of growth with me.  You have reminded me that it is never too late to grow up.  You have taught me that roots don’t have to be in one location or one home but they can grow in a rocky heart of someone that once thought you were a crazy bird!  Your legacy of a passion for all things natural, simple and wholesome will forever be in my heart.  It is my earnest prayer that even though I never got a chance to hand write you a letter letting you know that these legacies will live on in my heart I hope that you did know it all in your heart!
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven; a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a d time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace… He has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”  Ecclesiastes 3:1-8,11