What have you inherited? What are you passing on?

In 1936, my great-grandfather purchased a small cabin on 100 acres of lush forest for just $600. Sitting on a bluff overlooking a small lake in northern Michigan, it is a truly beautiful piece of property that has been passed down, generation to generation, in my family. I have been going there every summer since I was an infant. The forests and lakes, sand dunes and cherry orchards of that place are a part of who I am. They are where my soul feels most at home. 

I’m grateful for this legacy that my great-grandfather left his family, and it’s one that I hope to pass down to my children as well. But inheritance is so much more than just land or possessions. We also often inherit our family of origin’s wisdom, as well as their dysfunctions. My own family has done well at negotiating the competing needs and interests of each of the now eleven families that have collectively inherited our great-grandfather’s land—placing a value on cooperation that I’m sure was learned by my great-grandfather’s experience growing up as one of eleven siblings. But I’ve also seen the way different branches of the family sometimes gossip and tear one another down behind each other’s backs—possibly an inheritance from the more passive-aggressive tendencies I noticed in my grandparents growing up. Legacy, in any family, is a double-edged sword.

Thankfully, we have a say in what we choose to inherit. The past is not a prison. When we awaken to the patterns we have received, we can then begin the hard work of undoing them and replacing them with something better, healthier. We can create a new legacy to pass on to those who come after us—including both biological descendants and all those we influence throughout our lives.

This is the work we are invited into this October at Illuman’s annual men’s gathering, Awaken. Together with hundreds of other brothers, we will examine our roots and look to the horizons of the future. We will ask ourselves what inheritances we want to keep and what no longer serves us. We will imagine together how to foster a better future.

I hope you’ll join us.

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-Mike Clawson