Recently, I shared some heartfelt encouragement with my newsletter subscribers after I asked them this question: What’s the most meaningful thing your grandchildren will inherit from you?

Write Your Stories

I shared a quote, a story and a pretty serious call to action.

It went a bit like this. You and I need to prepare for our grandchildren to inherit the most meaningful thing we can possibly leave behind.

Our stories.

Use Storyworth to Do It

My daughter gave me the gift of Storyworth last year on my birthday.

By the time my next year rolls around, I will have written at least 52 stories that answered the questions she has been emailing me each week.

What a treat!

At first, I was skittish about writing.

Will this really be interesting? I wondered.

Can I remember enough of these things I haven’t thought about in so long to even make much of a story?

And, also, exactly how honest should I be when asked a question that requires a hard answer?

So, I messaged a friend, and she ended up sharing her own Storyworth account with me so I could read what she’d written.

Oh, wow. That inspired me to no end.

Her stories were sweet, but real. She gave credit where credit was due, and when telling about the stressful or unhappy times, she very tenderly explained the details.

Reading the stories of my friend boosted the courage within me to start writing my own.

Here’s One of Mine

This is just one of my shorter stories than I’ll share with you in hopes that I’ll encourage you like my friend encouraged me.

The funny thing was that as I started to write, and the more I kept on writing, I discovered so much joy in reliving the moments.

And the memories just kept coming.

Soon, I was thinking, “Oh, I’ve never told my kids about _______. I need to add it to my Storyworth!

I hope you’ll have the same experience.

This Was the Question

Here was the question:

Where did you go on vacations as a child?

When I sat down to write, I became so thankful for the time to actually ponder this memory all the way through.

In forcing myself to write it out, I was actually giving myself time to feel more of the memory’s components.

Things like, the way it felt to take a nap in the swaying motion of the motorhome’s back bed while traveled long stretches of highway between the Texas panhandle and the Colorado mountains.

And while I thought I might remember how cramped it was with seven people living for a week in less than 250 square feet, I couldn’t conjure it up. All I could recall was the sheer fun of skiing at Christmas, playing cards with my siblings, and eating my mom’s scrumptious meals every night.

Here Is The Answer

While all those peripheral details roamed around in my brain, I honed in on a few pertinent facts and finally settled into an answer I thought would suffice. (Note: Nana and Pawpaw are what my kids called my mom and stepdad.)

“My family never went on a vacation when I was a young child, unless you count a weekend in Elk City, Oklahoma to see grandparents.

That was fun, but real vacations started when Nana married Pawpaw and we all learned to snow ski.

Every Christmas, we loaded up in a motorhome and drove to a different mountain in New Mexico or Colorado, where we situated ourselves out in the parking lot and kept the heater going with a generator.

Those were the best vacations! We played cards, ate chili, spent all day on the slopes and had a great time.”

“During the rest of the year, Nana and Pawpaw worked in another long weekend or two for all of us to get away in our big brown station wagon.

We went to Houston for Easter or met the Howe family for tubing down a Texas river.

We saw the leaves change in Taos, the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Six Flags in Arlington and the Alamo in San Antonio.

But the ski trips were the most fun of all.”

A Grand Adventure

Writing your stories will not only be a great inheritance, it will be a grand adventure!

So, please feel free to use my Storyworth link to get $10 off your purchase, and have at it!

You’re about to create the most meaningful thing you grandchildren will inherit from you!

Encouraging intentional adventure,

PS: Here’s a link to a blog post where you can discover some books I’ve read that might inspire you to write.

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