Last night I got to thinking about my grandmother, who was an amazing woman and lived a very full life. Ryan had mentioned traveling to Ireland someday and I remembered that she used to go there every few years. She was a very well-traveled woman, but to my knowledge, Ireland was the one country to which she kept returning, even well into her 70s. I started to wonder why she kept going back? Did she know people there? Was it just the beauty of the place? Did she travel around or always just go to one spot? It actually saddened me that I didn't know and I began to wish she had kept a journal of her life so I could go back and check. Even if she had kept a journal, there's no reason it should have ended up with me over her other grandchildren or her children. But I would have treasured it, and maybe even made copies for other people to enjoy, too. Granted, when she first became ill, my father took the time to get her on tape recounting many stories from her life, and I have those on a DVD that I watch occasionally and bawl my eyes out. But it doesn't answer all my questions, and I was too young to even know to ask questions before she died.
All that got me thinking about this blog and why I write. I've written before about why I post, and I even touched on it a little bit then:
I also like the thought of having all these posts for my children someday, so that they have something to remember me by. It’s almost like leaving just a small mark on this world, a small legacy in some way.
But now, when faced having actual children, and not just hypothetical ones, I'm even more convinced that this is a great way to pass on a little bit of my life. And as I think back to my grandmother, and even generations before her, I wish they could have blogged, too! So I will take greater care to write about things going on with me (in the most entertaining way possible, so I may stretch the truth at times!). Who's to say my children or grandchildren will be the sentimental type who will actually care? I can't say, but I will at least do my part for them.