With Día de Muertos approaching, we’re reflecting on all of the ones we’ve loved and lost. Krystal also discusses end-of-life planning and the legacy YOU want to leave behind. We know the topic can be morbid, but in reality, it’s one of the kindest, thoughtful things you can do for those who can’t join you on your journey to the other side.
There’s just something about Fall. It also brings us around to Diá de Los Muertos. I love the movie Coco by Disney Pixar. I love the message that it brings around the whole concept of remembering our loved ones and remembering those that came before us. There’s been this overarching theme lately in my life, sadly, and I know in a lot of other people’s lives where we do have a lot of loved ones who have passed on and we’re left, missing them, thinking of them often praying that they are happy in whatever the afterlife brings. It means that we have an opportunity to look back on their lives and their contributions to who we are and how they’ve changed our lives, how they’ve affected us. A memorial that was recently had – the wife sang the song from Wicked of, “because I knew you I’m a better person because I knew you.”
And I just kind of sat back for a minute. And I thought about all of the people that I know right now and how grateful I am for everyone. And I like I would take one person. And I would just think about that person and all of the ways that I’m grateful for our relationship. And then I energetically sent them a hug before I moved on to another person. And then another person, it also gave me pause to think about me and what I’m doing and who I am, and my hope and prayer that I myself am putting positivity and love and self ownership out into the world. That the legacy that I hope that I am sending out there is one of growth and hope and peace. Coco has us take a moment. Coco has us look back at our ancestors and the people who helped bring us into this world.
On some level. I want you to take a moment to think about the beautiful traits that they have contributed to you being you perhaps there’s this hardworking salt of the earth way back in your life, way back in your ancestry, where they just learned this a good day’s work. And that was taught to your grandparents that was taught to your parents now is taught to you or love and charity for mankind, or maybe it’s a trade like blacksmithing or branching baking. Maybe there’s that family recipe that just keeps getting passed down generation to generation to generation. Think about all of the wonderful, positive traits, knowledge, passion skills, the morals, the strengths that are innate in you and have come through generations of people, maybe, you know exactly where they came from.
Diá de Los Muertos is an opportunity to look back to honor and be grateful for each of those people, for each of their contributions to the amazingness that is you. Perhaps it’s an opportunity to write things down. Perhaps this is an opportunity to list the gifts that you have received. And maybe you want to link them to the people you have received them from those gifts and traits that come down through the family. And maybe it’s not even through the family. Maybe you’ve learned these traits from friends or friends’ parents. And it’s something that has come from other people who have really influenced you in your life.
There’s just something beautiful about honoring that, taking that moment to list things out, taking that moment, literally sit back and see in black and white, all of the amazing things that help make up you and where all of these beautiful things came from. There’s one more thing that I’d love to encourage you to do. What of these things do you hope to pass on? None of us make it out of this life alive. What is the legacy that you hope to leave when you pass on? What do you hope people remember you for?
My husband and I are huge on end of life planning. What can you do in your life to make sure that when you leave the next people don’t have as much to clean up. So we are all about the trusts and the wills and the financial power of attorney and the medical power of attorney. And what do you want done with your body? Like we want to make sure that all of that is organized and put out there so that when we go, the people who have to take care of it are not as stressed out while they are trying to mourn our loss. I encourage you to do the same when you finally leave this world, which is hopefully decades and decades from now.
The question is, what would you like people to say about the person that you were? How would you like them to be able to honor you? And is there anything that you want to change now? For me, I want to be a super strong and capable grandma long into my wrinkly adult years. I really want to be able to hold my grandkids and my great grandkids. I want to be able to enjoy and really live in that moment with them. That’s where I want to be. I want to love and nurture those around me with kindness and hope, actively enjoying everything that life has to offer. I am so very grateful for the traits and the gifts that those who have gone before me have passed down and given me, and I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to pass that stuff along to. I encourage you to just take a moment, honor those that you love, honor those who have gone, honor those that are here now and honor all of the amazing beauty that makes up who you are. This is a moment every day is another moment. So while you honor the past, embrace the present, prepare for the future.
I hope this moment of self-care and healing brought you some hope and peace. I’m Krystal Jakosky on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube and I hope you check us out and follow along for more content coming soon. I look forward to being with you again here on Breathe In, Breathe Out. Until next time, take care.
