Reviews
Leaving a Legacy of Beliefs, Values, and Hopes Jo Kline Cebuhar defines an Ethical Will as that which you believe, what you know, and what you hope for. Her book "So Grows the Tree: Creating an Ethical Will" outlines for the reader a number of possible plans for creating a personal Ethical Will. Kline also helps the reader understand why it is important to create their own Ethical Will, how to make your story come alive, and a time frame for creating an Ethical Will. Her suggestions include ideas for using quotations, thumbnail essays, and embellished journals. She talks about three dimensional Ethical Wills using photo albums, scrapbooks, and genealogies. She incorporates the use of the computer, with digi-scrapbooks, power point presentations, video, audio, and music in your preparation. The provision for "notes to self" spaced throughout the book proved personally helpful in getting me started on organizing my own Ethical Will by making an inventory of photos, memos, documents, and writings that define my own life lessons learned, values, and beliefs. I thoroughly enjoyed the quotes from well known biographers, national leaders, contemporary personalities. These concepts add credence to Cebuhar's writing. "So Grows the Tree - Creating an Ethical Will" is an important work. Every life coach, financial planner, and legal advisor should provide a copy for each of their clients. Richard Blake Midwest Book Review, "Jo Kline Cebuhar captures and helps us realize an ideal that we all long for: leaving a meaningful legacy for our loved ones. SO GROWS THE TREE is a hard-working, yet amazingly inspirational book--a "must-have" for anyone with a story to tell." - Carol Field Dahlstrom , publisher of Creating Together Journal , "While tapping into an ancient, family-based tradition, Jo Kline Cebuhar has also made an eloquent case for value-based planned giving. Individual donors, fundraising professionals charitable organizations and whole communities will all be beneficiarires of her work." - Jim Dietz-Kilen , Vice President, Development, Living History Farms, Beccy Golding with The Spark magazine, Briston, UK (March-May 2011): Because as you try to identify and describe your beliefs and values for others, you have to identify and describe them to yourself, and that's the beauty of this book. It's a practical how-to manual, and at the same time a guide to self-reflection. And that's a good thing to do at any time of life. So create an ethical will now, then top it up in five years time, and after that, another ten.
