December 15

LOVE MONTH: DAY 15: “Love is how you stay alive, even after you are gone.” ― Mitch Albom

This quote reminds me of how I feel when I look at pictures of my husband. He has been gone for a long time, nearly 16 years. But I still have pictures of him around. They were put away in a box when I had a relationship, it felt right. But I don’t right now, so have pictures of him around.

Along with my dogs, who are both gone as well. Not sure if that is “normal” or healthy, but it is the way it is at my house today. And I look at them all the time and feel that love in my heart. It is just as strong as it ever was. Their deaths did not diminish my love for them. It is the same.

I believe we all have this impact on the world. Some people believe their “mark” on the world is their offspring or their career. I believe it is the impact we have on others’ hearts. Did they feel love when they saw us, or did they cringe in fear of what we were going to do next? I think we all have had that impact (both of them) on others at one time or another.

Our gifts to this world are those things we have done that made a moment better or more filled with love than it was before or without our presence. I believe this. What I do in love impacts the world energetically and karmically. That is challenging for some to understand. It does not change the fact that it is true, whether we get it or not.

I want to leave a legacy that contains loving thoughts, words, and deeds. It won’t be my work because that is only a job I performed for money. Any love I put into my work was that it brought me into contact with some amazing and wonderful people, but trust me, there were some assholes too!

I believe how we do what we do every day is the thing that marks the world. If I make a cup of coffee or tea for someone, I hope the love is in it. Or cook a meal, or give them a ride, or bring in their mail, or even just greet them on the street as I walk around.

When I am less than loving and kind, I want to always be able to double up on that the next time, with that person or the next one. I am not (SO not!) Mother Teresa. So I get to clean up my attitudes, behaviors, and ways of being every day. This is a process, none of us is there yet. What is your legacy today?