A beautiful, real-life example of one of my favorite I Want a Fun Funeral ideas: This request by a teacher for people to donate backpacks filled with school supplies instead of flowers at her funeral.

Backpacks_photo_Waddell_Funeral_Brad_Johnson

You don’t need to ‘know’ you’re dying to make this request. This is so important to get. We are all dying, philosophically speaking. Writing down thoughts about your legacy should be a given, if you value your own life and the difference you’ve made. And the difference you can continue to make even on your passing!

This I beyond thrilling… in my idealistic view of the world, it’s transformational.

Picture a world where every time someone died, a good deed was done in their honor.

By design.

With intention.

Honoring them and making a difference in the lives of others, be it one person, dozens, hundreds, or thousands.

And the fun is we decide this ourselves! Yes, there’s some fairy tale appeal of our loved ones doing it themselves, and surely, there isn’t a darn thing wrong with that. At. All.

But why chance it? Especially for these two reasons:
1) The warm heart and satisfaction and you get now, while you’re living, of deciding on your gift, and the requesting of it,
2) The pure joy your loved ones get in carrying our your request. At a time when they can no longer talk to you, to be able to do something you requested is such an honor, a balm to their hurting hearts, and a great source of healing and peace.

Please call me if you want help with this, because I am all over pushing this idea!!

So much gratitude to Tammy Waddell for her service as a teacher and her incredible, inspiring legacy.