Rewilding Me: Crafting a Holistic Legacy Through Writing and Planting

~ Liss Caldwell

What is a legacy?

I recently asked a group of my clients this, most answers related to inheritance of property, business, brand, or wealth, be it shares or dollars, and reflected that the group were writers all included writing and leaving their story in a book. The importance of sharing your story, lessons learned and core values is an important part of legacy and connecting past and future generations. I am lucky enough that my Da, wrote two books of his time as a Rat of Tobruk. These books, allowed my son to know more of our family story as he grew up and started shaping his own opinions of the world, despite Da having passed.

Stories Shared

In years gone by, stories were shared verbally and passed from generation to generation. Some shared tales of belief, life and understanding may have grown into family heroes, legend and or tales of myth, fable and folklore. The details changed slightly with each retelling, some embellished, some removed, some stories evolving into complex epics.

Writing your story, defining your voice, the details and instilling yourself as the true (questionably biased, after all there is always more than one perspective to every story,) narrator of your own tale is one way many consider, to pass on non financial legacy, to future generations.

Simplifying Inheritance

Many people think of passing on possessions or trinkets that have been passed down through the family. I myself have family furniture, antique items that were passed down through the generations, my grandmothers piano from Perth. Playing the piano brings me joy. I keep it because I use it, however there are other items, that don’t bring me joy and yet until recently I felt obligated to keep and pass on. The burden was real.

I enjoy a simple life, I love being in nature. I am one of those people who feel at home in creative clutter, not to the Margaret Olley extent, where if you add another bunch of fresh flowers to the decaying ones surrounding you, it’s ok. I’m a visual person and I like being able to see everything laid out, like in a Brambly Hedge illustration. In complete polar opposite I also feel at peace with Japanese Zen like minimalism, where the focus is on negative space and nature. Can the two combine? 100%.

To find the balance of my creative processes and the Japanese aesthetic, I embraced, Swedish Death Cleaning. I first came across this term in a book, blog or vlog, the algorithms seemed to bombard me.

Swedish Death Cleaning

Swedish Death Cleaning stops the potential weight of inheritance, by asking those you are saving items for, if they actually want them. If no one wants them, they are repurposed either by gifting, selling or donating. Not everyone lives the same way. We live very differently to generations past. If the value of the item is not cherished in your home, and the intended benefactor also doesn’t want it. Let it go. One person made a file of digital photos of items and artwork they no longer wanted and let the physical versions go as the intended beneficiary didn’t want them either.

It’s not hoarding if it’s books, it’s building a library for future generations. I have lived this. I love my library and reread many books and classics. In today’s society, especially with a housing crisis, space is an issue, a hot commodity. I’ve seen many friends in the publishing community, when they are downsizing as empty-nesters, the hardest thing they had to let go of was the collection of books. Most kept their favorites, even this was hard with limited space, but what of the first editions that were personalised? Some people took digital images of them, others ripped the page out and kept the page, binding the pages as a collective into a new unique book. The remaining books were donated to other readers or local charity shops. I am lucky my son loves books, and reading but many people consume books via audio or e-book. Paper books are on the rise again as people detach from screens, due to overload or addiction, so who knows maybe library towers will make a comeback.

Inheritance: Sustainability and Environmental Impact

I’ve Death Cleaned my house a couple of times now. Not because I think death is around the corner. It very well could be, none of us know. I death clean my house because I know that, what remains are essentials that light up my life now. I’ve passed on my son’s one request, because as much as I love my pearl ring, I bought in Naples, on our first overseas trip, when he was a kid, I can no longer wear it. What is left can easily be collected and donated to a refuge supporting women re-homed from domestic violence.

I liberated myself of things I’d inherited or been given and felt I “should” keep or pass on, because I don’t want my legacy to be a burden on him or his wife. Swedish Death Cleaning freed the family.

The idea of passing furniture/house items through the generations, re-purposes and reuses what could become landfill and detrimental to the environment.What I didn’t want or need was able to be re-homed or re-purposed or can support another in a time of need, once I am gone. I have never resonated with the need to consume. I am discretionary with any item brought onto the property or into the house. If I can’t use it, don’t need it or don’t love it, it does not enter.

De-clutter: Freedom with Swedish Death Cleaning

  1. Stop and feelings over overwhelm that might trigger procrastination, or endless list making by committing to a considered and reasonable timeline eg one room a day/week.
  2. If you don’t love it. If it doesn’t elevate your mood. If it isn’t needed for your practical living. If no one (benefactor) wants it, let it go.
  3. I started with big furniture, artwork/ sculpture and jewelry.
  4. Clothes – I’m not going to fit into the size 6 clothes again and have no intention of giving up food. So I let them go.
  5. I will digitalised photos and momentos into files, and will select favourites to incorporate into a book for the family to be passed down, along with the short stories behind the photos.
  6. Digitalise documents.
  7. Huge declutter and cull of my inbox and digital files.
  8. Multiple items, re-homed unless likley to be used. I need three axes in case of zombie apocalypse.
  9. Organise what’s left.

I’ve redone this maybe four times in the past twelve months and each time, I feel the imprint I’m leaving is lighter. The things I’ve let go of aren’t going to landfill, they have value to someone, just not me. They all found homes. I think one of my issues with some huge de-cluttering, is that it can feed the throwaway consumer society.

I do align with the Japanese concept of Wabi Sabi, the finding of beauty in broken objects, or unexpected places eg broken pottery is repurposed to hold water for animals in the gardens. Some of my well-loved (cough, worn) clothes are my favourite farm clothes with their patches and stories.

  1. Oh, you didn’t see books on my list…I’m not there yet. I am a bibliophile and human.

Rewilding Me – writing, painting/creating, planting

The freedom allowed me the choice of what I truly wanted my legacy to be. My experiences and generations past, their stories have shaped me. My stories, beliefs, values and the way I tread the earth define me. That’s the story I will choose to share and pass on through writing, painting and planting. After all, those who share memories with me will have their own perspectives and stories.

What about holistic legacy or life legacy?

I want for future generations to benefit from trees, to have the space to enjoy nature. I want to ensure the rewilding I’ve done continues on this property, which is now recognised as a wildlife sanctuary, designated for conservation. Revisiting properties I’ve lived at, I’ve left a legacy of trees decades later my gardens, I planted, still grow, even the ones I started at sixteen. The environmental legacy I leave, the voice I’ve been for those that had none is worth more than a trust fund and reflects my values. That is my story, my holistic legacy the wind will carry, that I hope will continue even after any first person memory of me walks the earth.

Holistically, besides writing your story and sharing your experiences, words and images can share glimpses of who we were, our actions, thoughts, beliefs, imprinting minds when we are no more than ghosts. When I walk with death, my legacy will whisper through the trees, chorused by the birds and bees, outlined within typed and illustrated pages, with the details, just so.

Through using Sweedish Death Cleaning, I allowed myself the space and freedom to gain clarity on the legacy I want to leave. An inheritance without burden beyond grief. Not just the property, assets, dollars and cents, the entire holistic legacy, which encompasses so much more than inheritance.

I think I can do one more round of Swedish Death Cleaning. I’d love to know if you give it a go, or what sort of holistic legacy you choose to leave.

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Published by Liss Caldwell

Uniting over thirty years as a coach, trainer, teacher and facilitator, with three decades in the publishing and Digital Marketing Industries, I support you to bridge the gap between goals and accomplishments, by navigating your pathways to publishing aligned with your book, business and personal goals. As an author and developmental/structural editor and emerging artist I understand the creatives path and the importance of nurturing your project to completion as you envisage it, whilst combining the marketing strategy, designed for business growth and author brand development. I am passionate about sustainable business development within the publishing industry. I am a disability and inclusion advocate and sit on the Lismore Council, Disability Inclusion Access Group. After learning to walk twice this lifetime, and to read and write three times this lifetime, I am passionate about giving a voice for inclusion and progression. I write social novels woven with folklore, for YA and crossover audiences to initiate conversations and grow communities. An active member of the Landcare network, I am currently rewilding seven acres in the Northern Rivers of NSW. For eight years we have been returning, degraded and heavily eroded grazing land to rainforest and koala habitat. The property, known as The Torr, is home to a diverse range of native flora and fauna many endangered or threatened species, including koalas, yellow bellied gliders, richmond birdwing butterflies, grey goshawks, glossy black cockatoos, as well as bats, many birds, echidnas. The Torr is a recognised women's healing and birthing place by our first nations' people. The goanna and snake are the totems that have returned in abundance. 10% of all exchanges are put back into rehabilitating this land back to it's natural state, with a promise of 95% to be planted and treed by 2030. I look forward to connecting and collaborating with you.

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