With Father’s Day this weekend, you may be caught up in buying the perfect gift or planning your family get together. But take time to think about your relationship with the men in your life. What are the lessons you learned from your father, the values your husband has passed down, the kind of dad your sons are becoming?
Once our kids went away to college, my husband wrote them weekly letters of encouragement and enclosed fortune cookie messages. And now he has compiled all his homespun advice and practical wisdom into a book.
You see, wealth represents more than money. As we age, there are gifts that we don’t always recognize – an expanding sense of self, a growing confidence, the knowledge of what we value. It’s been said that we all have a book inside waiting to be written. It can be a life review or an ethical will, you can impart common sense advice or provide a moral compass.
If your partner wants to leave a written legacy, you can get ideas from the index of Grandpa’s Book: Looking Back and Moving Forward. And here are a few words from Herb, the author:
“How would you like to be remembered by your children, grandchildren and future generations? Merriam-Webster’s definition of legacy is “a gift by will especially of money or other personal property.” But, for me, it’s also about leaving behind memories. So I decided to put my thoughts on paper.
In this book, I write about my personal and family history, as well as my ideas about how to get along in the world. I touch on positive and negative traits, difficult stages of development, and how to reach your goals. Most of all, I wanted to ease my grandsons’ passage into adulthood as well as teach them about responsibility and the consequences of their actions. Often life, and especially youth, is rampant with strife and rapid changes. The consequences of our actions can cause stress and anxiety. Learning how to cope and adapt is important and sharing this information with my family is worth more than money.
If young people are to succeed then they will have to do what is necessary for themselves. My feeling is that if you earn it, then you deserve it. Only through effort, knowledge, support and personal good fortune can we achieve worthwhile and meaningful success. Genetics may be of some help, but hard work is the true path and measurement. Despite best efforts, however, occasionally we fail. But remember that Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass; it’s about learning to dance in the rain.”
