“Legacy. What is a legacy?
It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.” ~Hamilton the Musical
This Summer I was reviewing my end-of-life stuff—seemed to be an appropriate exercise for someone approaching 76. I have versions of my own obituary (an exercise I highly recommend) carried over from previous hospice trainings. This time I was struck by the sentence that begins In lieu of flowers. Sending flowers as a memorial is a custom usually associated with wakes at funeral parlors which occur less and less these days. But how would I want to complete that sentence? Is there a charity I particularly support? A cause?
This year I have been privileged to work with a great team as we set up the Ignatian Spirituality Center in Milwaukee. Our purpose/mission is to promote the study and practice of Ignatian Spirituality, particularly through giving the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola and creating programs that make the treasure trove of Ignatian Spirituality available to individuals and groups.
I thought—that’s it! In lieu of flowers, a person can send a donation to the ISC-Milwaukee. This will be my legacy project—one vehicle to preserve and pass on the treasure trove of Ignatian Spirituality to people whom I will never meet and already love.
Start-ups are both fun and grueling—all that parsing of policies and procedures. There is the work of crafting a mission statement that can survive the consensus gauntlet. Buy in. Community building. The inevitable and, to be honest, sometimes enjoyable if exasperating, politics.
Dreaming. Envisioning. Planning. A spiritual lineage that 500 years ago faced the new world of the printing press; the vernacular; and the literal New World is now being adapted to podcasts, zoom links, AI and the passionate commitment of lay people. We hope to plant all kinds of seeds. We will be making it possible for more people to deepen their experience of the lineage by offering scholarships—a benefit to both the accompanier and the one being accompanied.
For my part, I have a project that calls on every gift I have and where previous mistakes provide compost. It is wonderful to have real work; to be in love again!
