Inheritance is what we receive from the spirits of our past.
Imagination is how we envision those spirits shaping our future.
The life we live is where all these spirits come together and become us.
Legacy is what we pass forward to those who follow.
I reach out into the starry sky and summon all those things from my past that have made me who I am today. They appear, then drift toward me like lights, dancing toward me. Soon they are spirits gathering around me. Some are quiet and gentle. Some are loud and harsh. Some whisper and some talk with scolding. I recognize each in turn:
This was my teacher. My grandmother. A friend. A loss. A trauma. A wound. This was a celebration, an honoring, something I learned, something I survived.
Each, both loving and harsh, carries a unique gift of wisdom, part of my inheritance, and together they gather around me in council. As they come together, their lights begin to converge, a mélange of beauty and conflict, balance and tension, all moving in a kind of swirling dance.
Then something shifts. What was the past becomes the present.
And this light is me.
Then I notice other sparks moving into my sanctum. These, too, are influencing the light of my present. But these new lights come from the future. More specifically, they come from my imagination of tomorrow, shaped by where I have been.
I recognize these, too:
This is what may come from a bad decision. An ongoing habit. A pattern that continues in how I relate to others. This is who I imagine I will become with age and experience.
Expectations are born from past patterns and relationships, and from the stories I tell myself about who I am and who I will be. My imagination creates these future spirits which also influence me in the present, just as the spirits of my past have.
Then, as if all these spirits, all these lights, have become one, I am given an important gift.
Peace of mind. Peace of heart. Wisdom.
I am told that both inheritance and imagination can be medicine, helping me live in this world.
And most importantly, I don’t have to understand, heal, forgive, or let go of everything from my past. I don’t have to know what tomorrow will bring, or resolve everything I imagine might happen.
I only need to acknowledge that all these spirits converge into this single light.
This is me.
And with this, I now have something to pass forward to those who follow. This is my legacy.
And the circle continues.
This is my journey,
— Nate Long “Owl”
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