Where There's a Will...

I've had this fantasy about watching my own memorial service and seeing what would be said and done there. I think it's just really important to me to feel like my life has been of some lasting value, that I made some kind of difference here in how I lived my life and how I affected the people I touched, and one way to see if that was the case would be to see what people would say about me after I'm gone.

We're all familiar with the concept of a will, in which a person's material possessions are passed on to those designated. But much of the time, what's most important about a person's life has little or nothing to do with the material wealth or possessions he/she amassed. For the vast majority of people, after a generation or two whatever money was passed on has been spent and forgotten, and whatever possessions were bequeathed have also either broken down and disappeared or have been passed along to others to whom they have nothing but superficial material value, if that.

To me though, the life lessons that people learn, the wisdom they acquire, and the love they became and shared are what are really most important and most enduring. So how can those be passed on too so others can also benefit from them?

The concept of an ethical will is becoming more popular in recent years. It's basically just a way for these other less material "assets" to be passed on to whomever may benefit from them. If you Google it, you'll find that there are all sorts of websites and companies that will help you craft an ethical will, some of whom want significant amounts of money for that service. But most of us are probably completely capable of producing our own ethical wills without any such help. In fact they would seem to have the most value when they're drafted and presented in the person's own hand and by the person's own mind, with no wordsmithing or template-adhering influence by others in the process. Authenticity is the key.

I've sometimes wondered why I created this blog at all and why I continue to put time and effort into it. And now that I've been exposed to the concept of the ethical will, I think that's basically what this blog is for me. It's a way of preserving and passing on the things that I've learned, the perspectives and life lessons and truths that are most important to me, and the things that I think others can most benefit from.

I know that for me personally all my life experiences and lessons can be most meaningfully viewed from the perspective of oneness or connectedness, so that's the primary focus I've given this blog. I still strongly believe that we're all here ultimately to grow in a sense of connectedness with God and all of life. That's a pretty broad concept though, which allows me to then offer all these various posts along that general theme.

So for those of you who can benefit from any of what you find here in any way, I offer past and future posts as my way of sharing what has come to be most valuable to me. I'm grateful for the opportunity to simply be alive now and experience all that I have, I'm grateful to be able to be of whatever service I can to each of you in this wonder-filled adventure we call life, and I'm grateful for all that so many others have shared which has enhanced and influenced my own experience here.