My legacy and Barbie

Sometimes I get a thought or a memory and I am very surprised by it.....this morning I woke up as usual and it was pretty normal...as I was drinking my coffee, the memories of Atlanta and Rich's and Henry Grady Hotel when I was a little girl started flooding my mind...hmmmm.what is this all about?? then one of the most treasured memories of all my life came back to me....The very first time I ever laid eyes on a Barbie doll display in the toy department of Rich's in Atlanta...it had to be either 1959 or 1960...I know, I know...but it was a magical moment in my life..LOL  all I had ever seen were baby dolls and I dearly loved them..well, maybe Miss Revlon doll and Madame Alexander  but that is beside the point...Barbie was DIFFERENT.....they were all lined up on top of a glass display case and I was mesmerized..!!!  hang on, I am going somewhere with this....LOL  her clothes were amazing to me..and the accessories...wow..

Here is my real Barbie and her friend Midge....I guess I wore out the blonde haired Barbie and the Ken too...I have had this one put away in a trunk for about ..well, a LONG time....she is from the 60's...

As I was pondering this morning, I decided to get down the Barbie case and look to see what was there....As I looked through all of the clothes, it hit me...this doll caused me to learn to sew....so THERE IT IS!!!!!!!!!  her case is full of clothes that I sewed for her...I don't guess I have ever thought about it like this...my daughter never cared about playing with her so she is in really good shape and the clothes are great...I have some that I bought but MANY that I sewed myself...I remember spending hundreds of hours designing and making her clothing..RIGHT THERE..that is where my love of sewing began...and I still have some of my handiwork..

Ok, so legacy...it is a stretch, isn't it????  well, here is the commonality here.....my Mama was a clothes horse..she loved fashion and she was a beautiful seamstress...I can remember her in her mink stole and dangly rhinestone earrings dabbing Chanel No.5 behind her ears..this was passed down to me or maybe sparked in me because it was there from birth...it was in her and she gave it to me..it was in me.....and Barbie brought it to the surface for me..maybe this doll was the opportunity I needed to start living out part of my legacy..that is why the first sight of this doll is etched in my memory so deeply..it wasn't about Barbie at all..it was about ME!  and the igniting of a gifting in me that is active to this day....even more so now because I have many years of experience of using this gift...

So here it is.....LEGACY.....what I will leave to future generations....part of it is my love of fabric and sewing...my daughter is a really good seamstress and my son's career is..you guessed it...FABRIC...he runs a company that laminates it...even Will has sat with me at the sewing machine and watched while we made embroidery....
Every one of us has a 'Barbie moment'...in our life....think about it...what has sparked a passion in your life?  what is your passion and what are you doing about it?  not trying to copy someone else's because that will never work..We can never be as passionate about someone else's gifting as about our own...
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Take some time and ponder....what have I always loved to do and how does that fit into the legacy of my life? 
I hope you have enjoyed remembering Barbie with me..it has been eye opening for me this morning...glad I stayed with this crazy memory until I 'got it'..thank you for reading my blog......