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Rachael Freed
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Rachael Freed, Founder of Life-Legacies (for information, visit www.life-legacies.com), Senior Fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Spirituality and Healing, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist. An inspirational lecturer and workshop facilitator, she provides legacy-related programs and training for health care, philanthropic, and religious organizations, for public and non-profit corporations, and for diverse groups of individuals experiencing life transitions. She is the author of Women's Lives, Women's Legacies: Passing Your Beliefs and Blessings to Future Generations and The Women's Legacies Workbook for the Busy Woman: A Step-by-Step Guide for Writing a Spiritual-Ethical Will in 2 Hours or Less. Now in support of a greener world, the workbook can be purchased as a pdf from >. Freed is currently working on: Harvesting the Wisdom of Our Lives: An Intergenerational Legacy Guide for Seniors and Their Families.

Freed has trained cardiac professionals internationally to support cardiac families. Her book and journal, Heartmates: A Guide for the Spouse and Family of the Heart Patient and The Heartmates Journal: A Companion for Partners of People with Serious Illness, are the only resources available to support the emotional and spiritual recovery of families coping with heart disease. For more information, visit www.heartmates.com.


Freed has trained cardiac professionals internationally to support cardiac families. Her book and journal, Heartmates: A Guide for the Spouse and Family of the Heart Patient and The Heartmates Journal: A Companion for Partners of People with Serious Illness, are the only resources available to support the emotional and spiritual recovery of families coping with heart disease. For more information, visit www.heartmates.com.

Blog Entries by Rachael Freed

Legacy Writing: Expressing Love

Posted January 31, 2012 | 1/31/12

What more lasting way to express love than to put it on paper?

Our world bombards us all day every day with words, most we do our best to ignore, delete or click away with a remote device. Or we rely on others to express our feelings for us --...

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Legacy Writing: A Spiritual Practice

Posted December 30, 2011 | 12/30/11

How did you celebrate the holidays that marked the beginning of days with more light than dark, the birth of Jesus, the Maccabees reclaiming the Temple and relighting the everlasting light at this time of year: solstice, Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza?

"Without darkness, nothing comes to birth. 
Without light,...

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A Legacy of Beauty

1 Comments | Posted December 1, 2011 | 12/1/11

In a world fraught with violence and destruction, we need more than ever... beauty. Of course beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. How can we pass forward to future generations what we perceive and experience as beautiful? Why is it an important value? What sensations and spiritual connections...

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A Legacy of Hope

Posted November 2, 2011 | 11/2/11

Without succumbing to trite phrases, political slogans or a naive perspective, I suggest that we spend this month focused on the importance of providing future generations, our children and grandchildren, with a legacy of hope.

At the High Holy Days this year my rabbi, Simeon Glaser, gave a moving and...

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Annual Legacy Writing Review

Posted October 3, 2011 | 10/3/11

"Legacy Tips and Tools" commonly focuses on specific legacy writing topics. As our e-list continues to expand, many new legacy writers are unaware of the basic principles of legacy writing. Others, who've been writing for some time, can benefit from a review to refine or renew their commitment to legacy...

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Celebrating Friendship

Posted September 1, 2011 | 9/1/11

"To have a friend takes time."
-- Georgia O'Keefe

All respect to O'Keefe, but friendship is about more than the priority of time. It takes values in common, trust, caring, tolerance, compassion, perseverance and even love. Friendship is built on mutual acceptance of our essential natures.

When...

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Linking the Past and the Future: Legacy Writing

Posted July 29, 2011 | 7/29/11

For whatever cultural or natural reasons, at a certain time in our lives we become aware of a deep yearning for our family roots. Some of us, because we are a nation of immigrants, make pilgrimages far from home to walk the land our forefathers and foremothers did. Others of...

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The Legacy of Our Stuff

Posted June 30, 2011 | 6/30/11

The power of everyday things carry both ideas and passions... emotional and intellectual companions that anchor memory [and] sustain relationship.
-- Sherry Turkle


Ethical wills are about values, not valuables. But what about the category of "stuff" -- of value or not? You know...

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How to Apologize in 6 Steps

1 Comments | Posted May 30, 2011 | 5/30/11

When we reflect on our relationships, we can't help but recognize that we've said and done things that we wish we hadn't. We've made mistakes, mistakes that have hurt those we love -- sometimes without even realizing it, sometimes accidentally, sometimes through neglect, judgment or gossip, and yes, sometimes purposely....

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This Mother's Day, Bless Your Mother

Posted May 5, 2011 | 5/5/11

Blessing our children is as old as Genesis. The ethical will was modeled after Jacob blessing his sons before his death (Genesis 49). Earlier, after Jacob stole his brother's blessing, Esau approaches Isaac to ask the question we all ask, aloud or in our hearts, no matter how old we...

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Legacy Writing: (R)evolution

Posted April 5, 2011 | 4/5/11

How do we individually echo the larger changes happening today in nature (earthquakes and tsunamis) and our political worlds (revolutions throughout North Africa and the Middle East)?

Simultaneously the season is changing, replacing the deep stillness and hibernation of winter with the awakening that heralds spring. This transition returns the...

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Legacy Writing on Courage

Posted March 8, 2011 | 3/8/11

The ethical will is often described as a legacy of values -- differentiated from a legacy of valuables, which refers to the gifts of our material wealth. Courage, a value that we've seen practiced and heard much about at home and around the world in 2011, is what we'll concentrate...

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Civility: A Legacy of Peace

Posted February 7, 2011 | 2/7/11

The legacy of civility, beyond our personal hopes for our families and loved ones, is imperative in our own country and the world. We have just in the past month witnessed the tragedy in Tucson, the Jasmine Revolution in my Peace Corps home, Tunisia, and the ongoing struggle for human...

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Legacy Writing: The Urge to Preserve

Posted January 7, 2011 | 1/7/11

Writing legacy letters (spiritual, ethical wills) is a response to the deep human yearning in us to articulate and preserve who we most authentically are and by what values we have lived. How is this different from the Lascaux cave painters communicating to the future over 15,000 years ago? How...

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Legacy: December Gifts, Writing the Dark into Light

Posted December 6, 2010 | 12/6/10

Is it any wonder that in December, the darkest month of all, we yearn for light? The physical reality of long nights and shortened days reverberates through us, affecting our emotional and spiritual states, as well.

"The midwinter holidays originate in pagan rites to seduce the sun back from...

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The Importance of Telling Our Stories

Posted November 15, 2010 | 11/15/10

From a legacy perspective, we tell our stories for ourselves and as a gift to future generations. How does telling our stories benefit us? We need to know and express our own stories. Difficulties arise not because we have a story, perhaps a very sad or painful story, but because...

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Legacy: Where Our Inner and Outer Journeys Merge

Posted September 2, 2010 | 9/2/10

I'm preparing a personal legacy journey: to a land of friends, teachers and students, the heady aroma of jasmine blossoms, the musty odor of camels, the sound of the muezzin calling Muslims to prayer, Harissa, blood oranges, Safsaris, souks chocked full with all the necessities of life, the awe of...

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Clutter: Shaping Our Lives and Our Legacies

Posted August 4, 2010 | 8/4/10

Is clutter company,
comfort, distraction or sloth?
No matter -- let go!


Reflections:

This haiku, written in my journal this morning, originated from thoughts I've recently had that were less introspective, and more wondering about my legacy.

I've imagined dying suddenly, and watching from somewhere...

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Context: Shaping our Lives and our Legacies

Posted July 6, 2010 | 7/6/10

Susan Griffin's astonishing and perception-changing A Chorus of Stones clarifies the unavoidable and stark reality of how world events shape our personal values and lives.

I get it that in a moment everything I love and value can disappear in a cyclone, an earthquake, a tornado, a flood or...

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Haiku: The Ancient Form of Twitter

Posted June 1, 2010 | 6/1/10

Last month I had the opportunity to facilitate an all day legacy writing workshop in East Lansing, Michigan. There gathered 57 women and three brave men to reflect on their lives and values, to communicate and preserve them for future generations.

We began the day writing haikus to focus...

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