Life’s Little ‘Check-In’

Hopefully this isn’t too depressing, it’s not meant to be.  We have recently been working though a lot of deep topics that come about when you are faced with your own mortality.  James’s father, Steve, passed away recently, my grandfather, Carl, did as well.  I think it is natural to find yourself in a deeply introspective pause in order to try to make sense of those sorts of things.  Both were great men, sadly I found out a lot about both only through their obituaries, I really wish I would have known more while they were here.  I feel like I had a really close relationship with my grandpa but with almost 60 years of difference there is bound to be some details we don’t get to discuss’in!  The same goes with my brief path’s crossing with Steve.

As sad as it is that I didn’t get to know all the gritty details while they were here I sort of feel that that is ok.  It is kind of cool to read some ones whole entire life in a summary, it sure makes them seem like a badass!  It’s kind of more awesome that they didn’t see their accomplishments as extraordinary, it was just a part of them, not something  bragged about.  They were both pretty extraordinary though and worth bragging about.  Luckily they both leave behind a legacy of family, now we just have to boast about them on their behalf!  And we will :).

It all get’s me to thinking though, what would my eulogy sound like?  What do I want it to sound like?   Am I writing my life in the way I want and accomplishing what I want?  What is my legacy?

Turns out I have sort of written about this before in a previous blogging life.  Before MiniMotives existed I had a blog called MeMotives.  I wrote about my life and my intentions, part of that is how I want to live and be remembered.  It was my way of sorting through life’s things, no surprise right around the time my other grandfather passed away several years ago.  Going back through those posts, what I have noticed is how helpful those intentions I set have been for me in meeting my goals over the years.

Through those posts I made a personal mission statement which has been a guiding beacon:

“To love life, live honestly and humbly, and actively create a better environment for my family and community with the optimism and passion that all things are possible.”

Since then, things have changed.  That was before I had a partner, before I had kids, before I designed or built my tiny house and quit my job/career(?).  Building this tiny house was never something I set out to do for any reason other than my own education (with construction) and to save me some cash for a couple years.  So much more has been accomplished with it though, it has changed my path in several ways, it has given me a platform I couldn’t have had on other paths.  It has changed things for me in ways I couldn’t have predicted and it continues to change things for me personally and professionally in unexpected way.  With the addition of these recent changes I figure it is time to re-evaluate life and my (and our) goals and my bucket list.

While there are no conclusions in this particular post, that is what I have been doing in the background here while also pouring myself and my time into our new little one, Miles, and our, now seemingly much bigger and more mature, little one, Hazel.

Breakthroughs will be coming soon :).  I hope you are all well!