Your Legacy

By Tony D'Angelo

I had a philosophy professor who was the quintessential eccentric philosopher. His disheveled apperance was highlighted by a well-worn tweed sport coat and poor-fitting thick glasses, which often rested on the tip of his nose. Every now and then, as most philosophy professors do, he would go off on one of those esoteric and existential "what's the meaning of life" discussions. Many of those discussions went nowhere, but there were a few that really hit home. This was one of them:

"Respond to the following questions by a show of hands," my professor instructed.

"How many of you can tell me something about your parents?" Everyone's hand went up.

"How many of you can tell me something about your grandparents?" About three-fourths of the class raised their hands.

"How many of you can tell me something about your great-grandparents?" Two out of sixty students raised their hands.

"Look around the room," he said. "In just two short generations hardly any of us know who our own great-grandparents were. Oh sure, maybe we have an old, tattered photograph tucked away in a musty cigar box or know the classic family story about how one of them walked five miles to school barefoot. But how many of us really know who they were, what they thought, what they were proud of, what they were afraid of, or what they dreamed about? Think about that. Within a few generations our ancestors are all but forgotten. Will this happen to you?"

"Here's a better question. Look ahead three generations. You are long gone. Instead of you sitting in this room, now it's your great-grandchildren. What will they have to say about you? Will they know about you? Or will you be forgotten too?

"Is your life going to be a warning or an example? What legacy will you leave? The choice is yours. Class dismissed."

Nobody rose from their seat for a good five minutes.



My highschool theology teacher once asked us, "your life may be the only gospel someone may ever read. What exactly is it going to say?"

That's a very good question...

Great Examples

Judd and I have been blessed by having our parents as excellent examples of relationships. I am thankful to have celebrated their 27th anniversary with them this weekend.

When asked by the waiter at dinner how to make a marriage last 27 years, Dad replied, " A lot of work....and you just keep going." Nice response, Dad.

Welcome Spring!

The thrill of home ownership is still exciting to Judd and I. However, I think it has transformed over the past two years from a shear thrill of calling a house our home to a sort of "desperate housewives" suburban community mentality.

How do the not-so-new home owners welcome spring? By beating all of the neighbors to mowing our lawn and watching how the "who has the best yard" competition continues. Within 20 minutes of starting to mow our lawn, Judd ran across the yard to Lucy and I simply to show us that 3 (count that: 3!) neighbors had started to mow after him. Let the suburbanite competition begin!

And to the obsessive, way to nice, neighbor next door who spends more time measuring grass than anything else in life: you'll probably still have the best yard this year but watch out for our secret weapon....Chemdog. There are benefits of not ever cleaning up the dog poo during the past 5 months....

Today's Blessings

It has unfortunately been very challenging for me during the past two months to remember how blessed I actually am. It has been to easy for me to become overwhelmed with unfortunate situations and I have thus forgotten to focus on what is important.

Today I am blessed that I have come to this realization and been given the opportunity to get back on track and take time for myself again.

Inside The Fire

Over the past several years, I have tried to make every moment of my life count, though that is sometimes challenging to remember. Life is simply too short not to live in every opportunity. I have often found that it is easy to live your life from moment to moment not really focusing on anything more important than to-do lists. There is a giant difference in living your life, enjoying each drop it can offer, and living to complete daily activities and routines. It is easy to become so accustomed to completion of petty tasks that you get caught up in not really living to experience what life has to offer. It is the experience and growth that matters, not the completion you find in the end.

Therefore, I have always connected to the following song lyrics. Old? Yep. Out of contexts? Possibly. Depends on how you hear it. Nothing beats an old Garth Brooks song.

Find it here.

"So hell bent on living, walking a wire,

Convinced it's not living if you're standing outside the fire.

Standing outside the fire.

Standing outside the fire.

Life is not tried, it's just merely survived

If you're standing outside the fire.

There's a love that is burning, deep in my soul,

Constantly yearning to get out of control,

Wanting to fly, higher and higher.

I can't abide

Standing outside the fire."

Welcome Meredith!

Lucy the dog, BEWARE! There is a new dog in the house!

Judd and I have become temporary surrogate parents of Meredith the puppy for the next few weeks. Meredith is the new doggy belonging to my sister, Jillian, and her boyfriend, Andrew. Since her arrival, Meredith has made our lives a bit more eventful and given Lucy a run for her money as "alpha rat dog". Currently, Meredith has decided that our bed is the best hiding position for soggy licked doggy toys, that running (away) is far more fun when you are being chased (found), and that life is far more enjoyable when you pick the loudest squeak toy to chew on at odd hours of the night.

Other than her puppy antics, Lucy, Judd and I have enjoyed her company...even if she has taken over our bed and we wake up to her using the pillows instead of Judd and I.

Wake up Jessica!

For months it has been bothering me that my life seems to be so stressful, disorganized, and insanely busy.The month before my wedding, my mother gave me a journal and suggested I write about the first few years of my marriage. Since then, I fear that I have often struggled to keep myself focused on what really matters and I have seldom written anything at all. On a whim, I had decided that I should start blogging again in order to document those little and important moments.

As I know well, intending to do something and actually doing it are two totally different things. As I took a break today from doing the piles upon piles of building homework, I found myself reading through entries I had written over the past year. I found an entry from May 30th, 2010.

I wrote, "If life were over today, what I want to do in the future will have no meaning. The past and the present are equally important as the future. Life is too short not to live in the current moment. Jessica, reflect on the current moment and the blessings you already have instead of the ones you simply want."

Therefore, if you read this blog entry, I am asking you to help me. Please help me live in the current moment to realize my blessings. If I am not adding entries, it more than likely means that I am not focusing on what I should be.

Some things are simply more than coincidence.