*
Leaving a mark
Some talented people
leave their mark in the arts
or sciences
or in sports
in humanities and in healing
in organization
or discoveries
But for the rest of us
more ordinary folk
I hear about the need
to leave a legacy
to leave behind something
tangible
memorable
to leave a trace
that the future generations
can have as a marker
of our time on this earth
as a reminder of our presence
Some people create histories
write family records
research genealogy
create stories
Some want to leave
their creative endeavours
as their mark
some in words
others through images
or creations
and then some people
want their mark to be left
in the hearts
of their families
and friends
in the impact
that they have made
on the souls
of their loved ones
the Tao says that
Only by virtue of Love
does one live forever
Is it important for you
to leave a mark...
How would you like
to make your mark...
*
Markings from pencil rubbings
in order:
outdoor rattan table top
crack in my worn desk
my woven shopping basket
seam of bamboo trunk
shell
conch shell
rattan coffee table top*
delwyn - entirely through the quality with which i lived my life . . . leaving love and a sense of goodness in the experience of everyone whose path i crossed or shared. thankyou for this lovely post!!! steven
ReplyDeleteLovely and thought-provoking!
ReplyDeleteI do have the urge to leave a physical, visual mark, but I like to think my everyday actions will be my true legacy. Especially in who my children turn out to be. :-)
I agree with Ciara. In the tangible world, it seems a natural desire, to make a mark in a physical sense. Yet, our true legacy may be less immediately obvious. There's no doubt, we touch the lives of others, though the impact is not always visible and rarely quantifiable.
ReplyDeleteHi Martin
ReplyDeleteyou have put this well. When I was a counsellor sometimes you didn't see the evidence of your work with the client, and in those cases I liked to think of the work as sowing seeds, seeds that one day might germinate...given the right set of circumstances...I never gave up hope....and so it is with our impact on our family and friends...
Happy days
Delwyn,
ReplyDeleteKnow that you have left your mark on my heart. An unexpected, delightful surprise to have been so touched in this virtual world.
The most important thing to me is to leave this world, knowing that my loved ones 'heard' and 'felt' my love and appreciation for them and with them...knowing I felt Theirs.
ReplyDeleteMy mother, a quilter...left a mark in her way. In the last years of her life, she made every single individual in our families a quilt, they would be a warm hug from her, after she's gone, she would say.
...Wanda
Hi Wanda
ReplyDeleteyou are so wise and seem to be able to add another layer to my ideas by the generosity of your loving nature.
You made me think about how I show and express my appreciation for my kids...they know how much they are loved but to feel appreciated is just that little bit different. thank you for adding these sentiments my friend...
Happy days
Hi Steven
ReplyDeleteyou have such good intentions and generosity I am sure that people appreciate your efforts.
Happy days
Hi Ciara
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. The way we treat our family and friends and also acquaintances in the day to day events leaves its mark. With our children it is cumulative and seminal, determining to a large extent how they will view the world and function within it when they are adults.
thanks for adding your comments to this chat..
happy days
Hello Bonnie
ReplyDeleteI often think about the depth of friendships some of us have forged, well maybe that is not quite the right terminology because our friendships are in many ways still so two dimensional, but we certainly have impacted on each other in our discussions, sharing, empathy and kindnesses...and for that I am very grateful and I look forward on a daily basis to our contact...
happy days
Delwyn, I have great respect for the Tao's wisdom. I think people can leave the tangible to future generations, from Versailles to grandma's china, but it's the ability to love that leaves a real mark. This was a beautiful post. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteProbably I will not find the right words to describe how does your mark on my well-being falls in like a long,lost and needed piece of a puzzle,is it that your mark makes the picture of how I wish to see this world complete!! Thank you gain for the beauty!
ReplyDeleteLove,light and peace Delwyn! :)
Hmmm. I'm actually more interested in discovering the "marks of love" others have left with me and transmitting this love as cleanly and as fully as I can into the world.
ReplyDeleteIf love could be thought of as electrical current:
I want to be a superconductor of the love that that has been already bestowed upon me--that's a lot of love once you start opening up your heart to see it--
And, at the same time, act as an insulator to all the negative, hurtful energy that my karma has brought my way.
I often think we don't truly know what that lasting legacy of ours will be. People's experience of us dictates so much more sometimes than the way we might perceive ourselves. Yet leaving my mark is maybe more about me than others... I don't know... I just find myself exploring these topics in depth lately. Thanks for the thought provoking topic!
ReplyDeleteIn one of my human development classes they had us lay down, cross our hands over our chests and pretend we were at our own funeral. Then we were to ask ourselves, after all had been done and said, what were people saying about us. How did we feel about the life we'd lived. What would we have done differently if we had it to do all over again. The idea was to see what "marks" we had left behind.
ReplyDeleteGreat post.
It seems to me that love is a particular frequency or band-width of energy and that when we put more of it out in the energy field, we make less room for anti-love. Wouldn't it be a great mark to fill the energy field with waves vibrating at the speed of love?
ReplyDeleteI love what wanda said, that sums up how i feel too. Delwyn this was such a thoughtful post, do you know that each of yours feels like a gift? I get so happy when I see a new one has arrived. You are a blessing in my life.
ReplyDeleteThe rubbings are great.
i hope you have a lovely weekend.
x lori
i love the rubbings with this post.
ReplyDeleteand the lines you shared with us:
"Only by virtue of Love
does one live forever"
...
that is something to hold close at all moments, as a reminder. thank you!
Oh - I left my mark in your comment box, and it disappeared again... Perhaps it is telling me something about leaving my mark? I love the etchings, Delwyn. I studied them a long while and was glad when you referenced them at the end of your post. The mystery of them perfectly exemplifies leaving a mark, I think.
ReplyDeletethoughtful
ReplyDeleteAloha from Waikiki, Friend
Comfort Spiral
Hi Kittie
ReplyDeleteyes we can leave behind things but a real mark shapes and molds a person...
happy days
Hi Aleks
ReplyDeletereally! then your impressions of my mark are the missing piece of my puzzle, it works two ways...a very reciprocal arrangement...thank you Aleks...
Hi dan
true to your ethical values you are a LOVE recycler...I like the way that you have perceived mark making as a cyclic endeavour... that reissues the love and kindnesses sown on our behalf...and regenerates that love in the next generation...
Just lovely Dan
Hi Vicky
Oh I know how you are going to leave a mark Vicky...I read it between your words and feel it in your actions...
Hi Nancy
that was an abrupt but effective way of facing a reality and a concerning issue. I have just spoken to my Mother and she told me people were still sending condolence cards - far in excess of the numbers she thought she might receive...people are touched in different ways by a life lived well.
Hi Meri
I only wish I could remember this when I feel angry and frustrated Meri...I was telling a friend about the powerful surge of energy I recently felt with what I thought was some righteous anger...I wanted to be able to harness that energy in a positive way...and put it to good use.
Years ago Wayne Dyer taught me that when you interact with shop assistants and people you meet in every day transactions, you can choose to sow kindness and generous thoughts and comments and that these can help shape the day for those people and often leave longer lasting effects.
Hi Lori
thank you Lori. Thank you for being here in the blog world as a recipient of my ramblings...if it weren't for people like you I would be talking to myself and soon tire of that...I an rewarded by your comments and deepening of the current issue we share.
Ho Zoe
ReplyDeleteI walked about the house and rubbed away as I felt that these were everyday interactions I have with my belongings just as we have everyday interactions with people that may hold more significance than we think....
Hi barb
Did you see what I just wrote above to Zoe? They are just ordinary items from my environment that I use and bump into every day but you hit the nail on the head in suggesting that the marks we leave may not be clear or obvious or apparent at all right now, and on whom we also don't know....thanks for the follow-on...
Hi Cloudia
a woman of few words...but a deep thinker and muser I can tell from your pages...
happy days
Zoe
ReplyDeleteplease excuse my spelling. I wasn't trying to be hip...that's beyond me...
I haven't really thought much about this, but I suppose I'd like to leave my mark in people's memories of me and through my writing, and show a life lived in trust of a process of awakening, so that others might trust it too.
ReplyDelete