This weekend the Savage Girl is getting to celebrate a few
family milestones on my maternal side of the family. I had one cousin graduate
from high school and another cousin is about to give birth to her first baby so
a baby shower is planned for tomorrow afternoon. These milestones indirectly
affect me since my extended family is expanding and new paths are being embarked
on. All this got me to thinking about our family legacy.
Bonnie on graduation day...and yes she got her very own electric man for her
dorm room from yours truely!
I have always heard that cousins are a childs first best friends! Oh the stories we could tell on each other from our days on the Craighead farm! Here are some of my cousins recently at Sara's baby shower in December. Now Mallory is about ready to have her little one too!
Each day we are writing our history and life story whether
we realize it or not. We need to take time to reflect on the things that are truly
important and worth preserving for others
to view and remember us by in order to help preserve our legacy into the future.
Everyone has things within their life that they feel is important and worth reflection
time but sometimes we forget to communicate our legacy to others on why it is
important to us. I feel that my parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and great-grandparents have done a pretty good job communicating our family legacy on to the
next generation of Craighead youth. It is exciting to see my cousins now as
they are opening new life chapters and carrying on that legacy into the future.
My hope and dream is that one day I can do this too if it is God’s will and
plan for me to have children of my own.
My great-grandparents Hazel & Homer Gates.
My grandparents Ralph and Jo Frances Craighead.
My parents Leah and Charles Savage.
I believe there was a theme to this Craighead family legacy.
All of us grandchildren I believe were passed on this family legacy that
consisted of values, beliefs, and the love for heirlooms and preserving the family history. Some have
chosen to let it impact their life and change their family and or individual history.
It has impacted us all differently! This is not to say that we all have
followed the same path or that we are all clones of one another. Trust me we
have all made our own fair share of mistakes and some have even had their our
own off road adventures in life. We are human and life happens! But I believe because
our family history was passed down through the years we now can see certain values,
principles, and beliefs that are repeated in each generation. Hence now why it
is a legacy that I believe we are continuing to pass down. In a nutshell here
is what I believe our family legacy consists of…
Belief that there is one church, one God, and one truth. We
each were taught that we all have the responsibility to think, believe, and obey
the truth but if we want God’s acceptance then we must be willing to accept what
was taught in the beginning and not ignore the teachings of the bible and the examples
we can learn from it.
Education is very important and your daily attendance is crucial
when it comes to attending school. Continuing your education is a must! It is
the door opener to the future and the opportunities that lie ahead. Learning is
lifelong and doesn’t stop in the classroom. Learning is an exploration of
yourself and the things around you. You must ask questions and inquire to learn
new things in order to continue learning and fully understand life.
Service others and give back to your community whether it is
within your life work and career or your personal free time. Give selflessly
of yourself in order to make a difference and help make small changes for the
total overall larger life picture. Volunteer your time and energy, but do not
expect anything back in return.
Provide leadership for the things you are passionate about.
Step up and be a leader if you are needed because it is a job, someone has to
do it, and so it might as well be you.
Cherish the things you love and the things that make you
happy. For some within my family that means holding on to family heirlooms and
historical family pieces so that the future can know the past by passing the information forward.
No, my cousins and I did not go to family legacy school.
These were just small things in life that I believe that our parents and our grandparents
instilled in us through the life they lived and the example they set forth. If
only they could see us now! I can see the impact of the family legacy within
each of our lives. I am sure they would be very proud and beaming with joy from
all of our achievements. I am pretty confident that there are more turns and roadblocks
ahead for us but I believe our future is bright and that the legacy will be
remembered and carried forward!
Are you leaving a family legacy? If you have not ever
thought about it maybe you should reflect a little and see where you want your
family legacy to be. Who knows you might change your family tree!
The past few days have been pretty eventful for the Savage
Girl. Now, my idea of eventful and yours might totally be different, but I love
my life and that is all that matters! Sometimes I wish I could push “pause” and
be able to soak it in more, but I know things must continue forward. Pressing
rewind sometimes can cause emotions to rise so I believe we need to keep moving
forward down the road of life because something better might be waiting around
the corner and you will not know about it unless you seek to discover it. If
you are in a constant rewind reliving the past how can you ever move forward?
Tonight after thinking, reflecting, and “rewinding” a little
about everything that has occurred over the course of the last week I can truly
say that I’m blessed and thankful. Keep in mind I am not dwelling on these
things…I am just expressing the reasons why I have blessings and thanksgiving this week!
Family. This past
weekend I got to spend Easter weekend with my parents. We traveled to
Gainesboro, TN and enjoyed dinner at The Bull and Thistle. Then on Sunday we
enjoyed Easter lunch and a little quality time together. Mama and I took a walk
on Sunday despite the weather. We were a sight to see with our jackets and umbrellas
walking in the rain on the back roads around the Boles community and the family
farm, but I would not have traded my day for anything!
Friends. You do
not have to see good friends and be 100% in contact with them on a daily basis for them to be called "good friends".
It is nice to get random phone calls just because they were thinking of you for
whatever reason. With good friends you can pick up exactly where you left off
and it is as if you never were out of the picture. Good friends can feed and clothe
you. Literally they can do this by providing you with a place to stay, food to
eat, and clothes to wear. Then sometimes good friends feed and clothe you figuratively
by their actions, strength, and courage. It might be a smile, an encouraging
word, a gift, or a reaffirming word saying that you matter. A fellow Christian sister
recently shared with me that sometimes you just have to put on your “heavenly
attitude”. We do not need to be the “mean girl”…we need to be the person God
wants us to be despite the past and if a good friend is really a “good friend”
then they should want both parties to be practicing forgiveness, godliness, and
contentment. I am also thankful for new friends that have been brought into my life this week. I love building friendships and strong relationships both personally and professionally.
Work vs. Career.
I have a job that I love. Sometimes it is “work” because it is either physically
or mentally tiring. This week I have been working on our budget at work, so
needless to say I have been crunching a few numbers and this has been “work”
for me, but I am thankful for having I job I love! Other times my job is my “career”
like in the past few days. This week I got glimpse of the future for our
community and I was reminded of the reason I love giving back and serving in my
community. We can change the world. It doesn't matter if we are “kids” or “grownups”.
What matters is that we all work together and it will go faster…look at the Kid
President!
My goal for my career is to improve the quality of lives of
local citizens. I am usually reminded of
my “career” in fun moments...like learning to weave the bottom of a stool with
fellow workshop participants, reaching over 200 “likes” on The Heart of Tompkinsville Foundation Facebook page, and helping to decorate our downtown. Weird
you might say…I’m sure you are asking why did you think of your career in these
moments? Well, these things were fun and I have happy memories that take me back
to previous months in my career when the planning and development stages were
occurring. I was reminded by the people I am serving in the community that learning
is lifelong & can occur at any age if you want to learn. Learning can come
in many forms! Learning inspires people to constantly be thinking about
improving themselves and the others around them through citizenship and personal
development.
The Downtown Decoration Committee that I am chairing had to think
“outside of the box” to actually create a vision for our Spring decorations.
With a little of this “outside of the box” thinking the idea of maypole
inspired decorations was discussed, planned out, and put into action. I believe
these simple decorations downtown can help get others in the community get
excited and fired up about our future locally that local leadership is
currently trying to create and discover within our local community which in
turn would benefit all citizens.Have you got any
ideas Summer decorations?
Movement. I have
a couple of different ways that I relieve stress and both of them use movement.
First, I enjoy working out at the pool at our local Family Wellness Center
doing water aerobics. This week I have been able to get some “movement” action
6 times within the past week. YAY! It’s all about priorities and goals. Have
you set any lately? Second, I enjoy expressing my words on this blog. Somehow typing
moves the thoughts out of my brain so that I can make room for more important
things…like the things I have been trying to focus more on lately. I want to
thank those of you who read my blog and have expressed to me such kind words of
encouragement! Thank you.
Fellowship. I few
months ago I was asked to join a book club. I am not an avid reader like my sister
Anna who is a librarian, but I knew that this group of ladies would help and
challenge me in multiple ways and be a source of encouragement & Christian
fellowship. So far they have yet to let me down! This month we read Killing
Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly. Everyone stepped outside of their comfort zones when
our April hostess suggested the book, but after our book club discussion this
week we were all pleasantly surprised of the knowledge that was gained and found
when reading someone’s opinion and recount on a moment in American history. We
all concluded that history read today as an adult is so much more entertaining
than when you got grades for it in school!
Family. Friends. Work vs. Career. Movement. Fellowship. For all these things I am thankful and blessed. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7.
In closing, I was reminded of what my name meant this week, so I thought I would share it with you. I know this Savage Girl needs reminded of this from time to time so here you go...lucky for me I have a constant reminder of it since it is my name! :)
