A Little Girl’s Inspiring Legacy: Christina-Taylor Green
By Anna McKenzie
On behalf of Worthy Publishing

The End, and the Beginning

“I was at a Georgia Tech game scouting a pitcher one of the first weekends I was out. . . . During a break between innings, when they play music over the loudspeakers, one of Christina-Taylor’s favorite songs came on and I just about lost it. I was supposed to be a professional doing my job, so I didn’t want to break down in public, but I was really tearing up. I was praying, ‘Lord, just help me be strong.’ Then a fan stands up and I notice his shirt. It reads: ‘Out of tragedy and chaos comes hope.’”- John Green, As Good As She Imagined FULL POST

A Little Girl’s Inspiring Legacy: Christina-Taylor Green
By Anna McKenzie
On behalf of Worthy Publishing

The Foundation

“We established the Christina-Taylor Green Memorial Foundation as a nonprofit corporation. I know there are skeptics who will say that a nine-year old girl wouldn’t have been so altruistic, but the fact is, she was.” – Roxanna Green, As Good As She Imagined

In the aftermath of Christina-Taylor’s passing, her family set up a nonprofit organization in her name. Its mission is to carry on her charitable interests and enrich the lives of kids in her community. Caring people’s contributions have enabled the Christina-Taylor Green Memorial Foundation to serve and help those in need, all in Christina’s name and as a part of her legacy. FULL POST

A Little Girl’s Inspiring Legacy: Christina-Taylor Green
By Anna McKenzie
On behalf of Worthy Publishing

A Great Many Gifts

“We are proud that our angel left a profound mark on this world for others to follow. I hope that by our telling this story, others will understand not only the grief and sorrow we experienced, but also feel our love for her and pride in her as we witness the impact of her character and deeds. That is how her legacy will live on.” – John Green, As Good As She Imagined

A legacy, in some sense, can be defined as a gift.

Sometimes it’s a gift of land or property. Sometimes it’s something from the past that has been left to, or given over, to those still living who are in line to keep it. It transcends the mortal life of the person who began it and continues on in reknown, stewarded by the person’s kin. FULL POST

A Little Girl’s Inspiring Legacy: Christina-Taylor Green
By Anna McKenzie
On behalf of Worthy Publishing

The New American Dream

“Our little girl seemed to embody all that is good about America. We all need to believe that the American dream is still achievable and that by doing the simple things in life and doing them well, we all have the same opportunity to enjoy it.” – John Green, As Good As She Imagined

The future.

The future is a place where we have put our hopes and dreams. It’s a golden vault of accomplishments, achievements, and happiness realized. Why shouldn’t we expect great things of the future? It would be all the worse for us if we imagined a poor future; then we would inevitably meet it because of a miserable attitude in the present. FULL POST

A Little Girl’s Inspiring Legacy: Christina-Taylor Green
By Anna McKenzie
On behalf of Worthy Publishing

The People God Has Given Us

“Christina’s kindness and gentleness were apparent too, especially whenever she talked of Dallas. It was obvious they had a very special relationship.” – Kathie DeKnikker, Christina’s third grade teacher, As Good As She Imagined

We can pick our friends, but we can’t pick our families. And concerning the rest of society, while we have some degree of selection based on the environments we decide to be in, most of the time we end up around people who wouldn’t have made it through our personal screening process. Every now and then, that’s a good thing—some people whom we meet unexpectedly, or don’t like in the beginning, turn out to be much more valuable to us than we ever anticipated. FULL POST

Fulfilling Our Obligations

A Little Girl’s Inspiring Legacy: Christina-Taylor Green
By Anna McKenzie
On behalf of Worthy Publishing

Fulfilling Our Obligations

“Imagine—imagine for a moment—here was a young girl who was just becoming aware of our democracy; just beginning to understand the obligations of citizenship; just starting to glimpse the fact that some day she, too, might play a part in shaping her nation’s future. She had been elected to her student council. She saw public service as something exciting and hopeful. She was off to meet her congresswoman, someone she was sure was good and important and might be a role model. She saw all this through the eyes of a child, undimmed by the cynicism or vitriol that we adults all too often just take for granted. I want to live up to her expectations.” – President Obama, in a speech after the January 2011 Tuscon shootings, as recorded in As Good As She Imagined FULL POST

A Little Girl’s Inspiring Legacy: Christina-Taylor Green
By Anna McKenzie
On behalf of Worthy Publishing

Homerun Hitter

“[Christina] would want to say to us today, ‘Love life. Live it to the full. Life, you see, is a gift from God. Don’t squander it, waste it, throw it away. Rather, enjoy it. Share it. Make the most of it.’” – Reverend Gerald Kicanas, Bishop of the Tucson Diocese, As Good As She Imagined

Baseball players do not aspire to pop flies or line drives. They do not dream about making it to first. They do not practice so they can camp out at second.

Rather, they actively pursue the homerun.

It’s the homerun they aspire to. It’s the homerun they practice for. It’s that perfect-timed-swing, crack-of-the-bat, ball-disappearing-into-the-stands-as-the-crowd-roars moment that they dream about. To hit a homerun is to experience baseball at its finest, to squeeze every ounce of enjoyment out of the game. FULL POST

A Little Girl’s Inspiring Legacy: Christina-Taylor Green
By Anna McKenzie
On behalf of Worthy Publishing

A Crater of Compassion

“Christina, just a little girl, holds the wisdom of a wise woman. She wanted to make a difference with her life, to make her mark. She has done so in such a powerful way that even she could not have imagined.” – Most Reverend Gerald Kicanas, Bishop of the Tucson Diocese, As Good As She Imagined

Craters on the earth and the moon reveal where objects from space have hit solid ground. The rocks themselves aren’t still there, but we can see how they forever changed the landscape where they landed. Craters come in all shapes and sizes, but physical craters are not the only kind that exist. FULL POST

A Little Girl’s Inspiring Legacy: Christina-Taylor Green
By Anna McKenzie
On behalf of Worthy Publishing

A Special Love

“As young as she was, I believe Christina-Taylor was learning that people are different and shouldn’t be treated badly just because they are. In as simple a way as she could understand, I told her that we had to be aware of other kids who were different and that it was okay. ‘We don’t make fun of them. We help them out.’” – Roxanna Green, As Good As She Imagined

Christina-Taylor’s older brother Dallas was born with autism. Like all autistic kids, he struggled to adapt to his environment and to interpret all his feelings and the sensations he received from his body, his brain, and the outside world. Learning to find his way, especially when he was very young, was tough. FULL POST

A Little Girl’s Inspiring Legacy: Christina-Taylor Green
By Anna McKenzie
On behalf of Worthy Publishing

What Goes On

“Hard as it has been, it helps me to imagine Christina-Taylor looking down from heaven with a big smile because we have continued her dream of helping people. I never get tired of talking about my girl.” – John Green, As Good As She Imagined

We joke about tomorrow never coming, because today is always yesterday’s tomorrow—but the truth is that tomorrow always gets here, somehow.

The days go on and on.

It’s hard to live with someone’s passing as the tomorrows continue to come, like so many incessant ocean waves. They never stop once to give us a break. There is no rest from day-to-day tasks and obligations, and if we look at it in the view of months and years, we can get easily overwhelmed. How does life just go on? How does it continue after the death of a loved one, or a defining moment, or a time when your life changed forever? FULL POST