But, first, a bit of a review during Women’s History month.
On Wednesday, we talked about learning to deal with money from generations of adults who had no notion that women had rights to property or possessions or even their own bank accounts. (If you missed it, here you go!)
Apparently, my Muse was listening to the history lesson. She’s had lots to say since then!
First, though, our word, along with a vocabulary lesson.
leg-a-cy… the origin is from the medieval Latin for legatus, which means person delegated or the status of legateship.
Other definitions include: a thing handed down by a predecessor or an amount of money or property left to someone in a will.
Ignoring for this moment the old belief in my family, and quite possibly in yours, that ladies don’t talk about money, we’re actually going to do just that.
You see, both of my grandmothers had inherited resources, in the time when that was unusual, to say the least.
They both went on to manage those resources and make their own decisions about what happened to them as time went on. And, because of their wisdom and courage and love, I received legacies from each of them.
Not the kind of legacies, mind you, that get mentioned in the press. Nor the kind which cause some recipients to believe that they can rule the world.
Instead, a legacy my mom received from her mom turned, in a way I suspect nobody imagined, into a bit of rental property where Dave and I lived in the single mom trying to get through school and feed a kid days.
And my dad’s mother made a few gifts through the years which allowed me, among other things, to make a high school exchange trip and, later, my family to make it through the days I served my first church as young, female pastor being paid less than what the system considered minimum wage.
Just between us, I’m pretty sure neither of my grandmothers dreamed their legacies would be so welcome in those particular circumstances.
Here’s the thing…
I want to go on being helpful to my girls wherever their lives may lead, in as many ways as I can.
I want to continue to help students as others helped me.
I want to empower grandmothers – lots and lots of them – and those who think like them, to be legacies of many kinds in this world.
And, sometimes wanting is not enough.
Sometimes we need support and new tools and fresh beliefs to accomplish the things which matter the most.
Sometimes those things are in the future.
Sometimes they’re things that make now better.
And, sometimes, we don’t know yet. We just know we care.
If you share any of those longings or questions, Medicine Basket your way… unsticking stuck money stuff could be just what your inner wisdom needs.
And there’s only one way to find out! Let yourself learn more…
We are, all of us, ancestors for the future of the world. And the world needs us!
ps… as I write these words and re-set my Sacred Grammy Spaces, I cannot help but think of all those fleeing their homes without the tangible memories I so cherish and I just have to say again, the world needs us!