The measure of a life.

A neighbor of mine is really into genealogy.
 
She has cracked the code on how to figure out who you’re descended from, and where they lived and what they did.
 
Around here, it’s especially interesting to notice that so many people have been in this area for generations: since the 1800s, when pioneers headed west and pushed as far as they could, stopping just 50 miles or so short of the ocean.
 
What strikes me most is how little we are able to remember our ancestors. We might know one or two generations away from us. But after that, we don't know the people we came from. 

It strikes me too, how we will not be remembered when we're gone. At least, not for long. 
A few of us might leave a legacy, like Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King Jr. or Mother Theresa.
 
But most of us… We're just here now.  
 
Even if ancestors remembered what we “did” or where we “lived," that is very different from knowing a person intimately: what we were like, what we thought about, how we were day to day.
 
It seems to me then, that the measure of a life can’t be what we do, or where we live. And legacy is probably not to be counted on. 
 
The measure of a life, I think, is how much we connect, how much we love, how much we engage, how much we show up and our really HERE.
 
There’s nobody to impress. There’s no golden ring to grab. 
 
This life is for you: it's for you as soul in human form, so you can fill your heart with all these beautiful experiences, all this love.