Tiny stacks of 35-millimeter slides covered the dining room table. One by one I passed them through the slide viewer. The story of my parents’ earliest years together unfolded from Okinawa to North Carolina to Colorado and Texas. Pictures are only part of the story. Several years ago, dad sent me a handwritten letter, more like a long list of notes that wind through place and time. That’s anothe ...[Read More]
How to Write a Legacy Statement – The Most Important Gift You Will Leave Behind
Are You Willing to Trust the Next Generation?
“How about oatmeal for breakfast?” That was the question I asked my dad during a recent visit to his home. He was preoccupied and assumed I would make it like, well, just like it’s supposed to be made. “Sure,” he responded while passing through the kitchen. I busied myself with the simple task of cooking oatmeal. I don’t follow the instructions on the box. After many years ...[Read More]
Hot Dogs, Money and Kids
If you could invent one thing to make the world a better place, what would it be? That’s the question we put to eleven-year-old Jack during the game Phil and His Family’s Adventures in Giving. Joined by his thirteen-year-old brother and another friend of the same age, we took turns answering scripted questions. Questions like, “What is the nicest thing you have ever done for someone” or “What is t ...[Read More]
Climb the Giving Ladder Creating Your Own Giving Traditions
Peeping through a keyhole on Christmas morning, I could see the packages and toys Santa had brought for our band of four cousins. All under the age of 10, we took turns looking through the keyhole while my grandmother took her sweet time cooking breakfast. She was sweet, and I’m sure breakfast was as well, but I was a 6-year-old with a can’t-you-hurry-this-along attitude. The Christmas tree, with ...[Read More]