As a teenager, I kept journals. Unfortunately, those were lost long ago in a family move. In 1974, I reconnected with the joy of journaling and became a serious journal writer, having filled over 380 journals since then. Once I decided not to bequeath my journals to anyone, I devised an alternative plan-a legacy journal project. I sorted through thousands and thousands of pages and found meaningful excerpts to share with others. Somewhere along the way, this morphed into Living and Leaving My Legacy, Vol. 1. and Vol. ll. When I began, I chose seventy relevant topics, eventually narrowing it down to twenty-two. The chapters in this book are My Legacy Journaling Project, In Relationship, News Events Through the Years, Death and Dying, Loads of Lists, Holocaust Documentation and Education Center, Part 2, Those Who Were There, Looking Ahead, Room 732 in the Hollywood Beach Hotel, and Living and Leaving Your Legacy(R). Also included are legacy projects, including a guide to writing an ethical will.

Initially, each subject was roughly 75-450 pages and was taken from journals dated between 1974-2016. After careful editing, I have chosen excerpts that best capture my thoughts, feelings, conversations, encounters, memories, dreams, travel adventures, and more. I hope that sharing some of my life lessons, values, beliefs, hopes, and dreams in this book will prove valuable to others. Besides the journal entries in Living and Leaving My Legacy, Vol. ll, the book also has reflections after each chapter. These reflections are based on thoughts, feelings, and memories that surfaced from reading these excerpts. Following my reflections are journal prompts on each subject and blank pages on which one may write, should they be inspired by the prompts or something they've read in the chapter.