What if your legacy is the hearts that have
Opened in the sacredness of your humble presence,
Souls you’ve witnessed,
Lives you’ve touched with loving kindness,
The love you are,
The joy you share,
The suffering you choose to see and endure with clear eyes
As layers of pain transmute into light
Over and over and over as night becomes day,
As sunlight gently softens into many hues of a sunset,
As an inky black sky twinkles with starlight,
and a full moon glows, once again,
in honor of your existence.
Such lovely words, Laura.
Reading your post, I thought why “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig had become such a bestselling book.
I think reading it made clear to many that they would never know the alternative version of history, had they gone left instead of going right in that moment they now later feel guilty of having gone right. Many of us feel guilty about or regret what we did or didn’t do, but who knows what price we or others had had to pay, if we had done differently?
Oh, thank you for your kind feedback on this poem. And your additional reflections make me realize how much we simply don’t know about our impact or the choices we’ve made, not made along this journey-of the ripples created as each of us chooses one thing over another. I know for certain that I feel much better choosing from my deepest values and passionate interests-because in doing so I make a positive difference for the one life I can actually save–my own… I apppreciate your ways of deep thinking and deep feeling, Charlotte.