The end of any year is always a whir of activities. The pace of each day seems to increase tenfold as we near the end of the close of another year. There is holiday shopping;  year end tax planning;  year end charitable contributions;  decorating cookies and trees and homes; religious ceremonies and celebrations; school concerts and plays; final exams; and family gatherings, to name a few. At the end of each year, I reflect upon the fact that another year has flown by and that my runway of life is getting shorter and shorter.  This is not a sad reflection; it is simply factual. I ask myself:

• What do I want to do?
• What can I do for others?
• What do I want to accomplish?
• What do I want to learn?
• What mark can I make in this world that is meaningful?

What do I value and what values do I want to pass on?

Have you ever given any thought about recording or documenting the life lessons and values that you learned from your parents? Or produce something to memorialize your own core values to pass on to your members of your own family? When Mom died, it became clear to me that I had missed that opportunity to have conversations with her about her family values documented by video or audio recordings. I do, thankfully, have her singing group “Sugar and Spice”  concert recordings and I love listening to her singing and speaking voice on the tapes. It seems like people only take the time to pass on their bits of wisdom and family values when they are very ill and know that death is around the corner; then, they carefully record themselves and share their thoughts and wishes for those they are leaving behind in a kind of lasting memorial. Boo is an only child. He is therefore, by default, the keeper of his family history and lore. My brother Todd and I were encouraged by my husband Tom ( who is also an only child) to capture Boo’s history.  A friend of ours had contracted a writing team, whose business was to interview, to compile, and to tell the history of someone’s life through interviews, storytelling, the written word and photographs. We eagerly engaged this writing team and now have a wonderful published book of the life and times of  Boo! Everyone in the family has their own copy. The bonus of this project is a box of cassette tape recordings of my Dad being interviewed on all sorts of topics by this writing team. His voice will live on long after he is gone. I love that. I also happen to love geneology and have made great strides in capturing and assembling all of my families data on family tree maker to share with future generations. I have over 1200 entries!  This is not a task to be tackled all at once. It has taken several years, bit by bit;  but those years have provided me with the opportunity to connect with family members living all over the world. Try it! You might really enjoy it and you definitely won’t regret the time invested. Please think about it and ask yourselves-What are your life lessons and values and how do you plan to pass them along? Tell me about your conversations and some ways you have documented and memorialized them. Happy Holidays and Happy reflecting!