When do legacies begin?
In 25, 50, 100 years, what will you have shared with others that will last?
Hi Everyone,
Wishing you a Happy New Year.
January 1st holds a special place in my heart. It is the day of independence for Haiti, the home country of my parents. On this day in 1804, Haiti became the first free Black republic in the world and the first nation to abolish slavery in the Western hemisphere, serving as a guide for uprisings and revolutions across the world.
It is on this day that those in Haiti and across the Diaspora eat soup joumou, a pumpkin based soup whose ingredients were withheld from the enslaved by the slave owners. However, on January 1st, in the spirit of liberation, the newly freed Haitians made it customary to use the previously withheld ingredients in the soup.
My grandmother was on my mind as I prepared the ingredients for the soup. I wondered if my soup would come out like hers. I wondered if she learned how to make the soup from her grandmother, the same way I learned from her. I wondered what does it mean to leave behind a legacy and when do legacies begin?
As I spent time in the kitchen preparing to make soup joumou, I reflected on Toussaint Louverture's proclamation that "in overthrowing me, you have done no more than cut down the trunk of the tree of liberty - it will spring back from the roots, for they are numerous and deep."
That statement always resonates with me because I am one of those roots that has sprung up and in my own way, I continue the legacy of freedom that my ancestors paved for me.
Since creating the Intellectual Will, I have had an interest in legacies and what it means to pass on knowledge or resources to others. In this digital age, where does our familial and collective memory live and get stored?
Dr. Lisa-Marie
As I enter 12 years of blogging, I am thinking about what I am passing on to my family and community. You all have patiently watched me learn in public as I figured out how to create content, how to build a website, what to call my website, and more. Now, I am thinking beyond just writing to write; I am thinking about how I can take everything I have learned about indie publishing over the last 12 years and turn it into a legacy that can be passed down through my estate and beyond.
In 25, 50, 100 years, what will I have shared with others that will last?
This is a question that I pose to you all as well.
It may seem like a high-pressure question, but it's truly a simple one. 217 years later, a soup recipe is still a custom and that is powerful. While people might dispute the origins of the story, they cannot dispute the ability of soup joumou to bring generations together.
I wonder what stories, ideas, recipes, or thoughts we all have within us that will pass on and have a lasting impact?
What legacy are you passing along?
***Dr. Lisa-Marie | Learn.Grow.Pass, Vol.4 No. 1
P.S. Did you get this email? I am sending it from the new Lima Pea Co. website. Write back and let me know if you got it : ).
P.P.S. I am sending this note from a new email address, be sure to save it in your contacts, so that it doesn't go to spam next month.
Dr. Lisa-Marie