Tapestry

My seemingly healthy 28 year old nephew died in his sleep on September 1. It was a really tough loss.

As I looked at pictures and videos I thought of all of the holidays and special days that the family spent together. I was having trouble wrapping my head around the loss and being able to put it into words. Finally I found words to describe what I was feeling.

It was as though a tapestry had been woven for years and years. Every memory was woven into this tapestry and completed a picture of my own children's childhood, of our family history, of fun times and challenges. These encounters all woven together formed a picture that was descriptive of our lives. It seemed that the tapestry would just continue to be woven infinitely.

With Brian's passing it was as though someone pulled a thread out of the tapestry leaving it rent, not destroying the whole thing but leaving a space in the picture that could never be repaired.

Loss of loved ones is simply a part of life. We all face it sooner or later and the older we get the more frequently we face it. In fact, given the reality of our mortality, sooner or later all of the threads will be pulled from the tapestry that was once our lives. Eventually no first hand living memories will survive.

Whenever we face a death it reminds us of our own mortality.

I want to leave a legacy behind that will outlast the memories of those who shared this life with me. What can I leave behind that will make this world a better place? Every investment that I make in someone else that can in turn be passed on can and will contribute to my legacy. I'll never know how many people I impact and most of the impact that I have in this life won't even be credited to my account.

I must be mindful of the fact that I am contributing to two pictures or two tapestries. The one that weaves into the lives of my family and friends as life memories and the tapestry that I am weaving through my contributions into other people's tapestries.

There is a picture that I contribute to that will endure and go beyond my life and earthly existence.

I want to be a legacy leader.

I was always taught to finish the things that I start but I want to start things that are so big that they cannot be finished in my life time. The only way that I can do that is to keep making deposits into other people's lives, keep helping others to be better and to step up so that the good that we start together can pass on to the next generation and continue on.

We are all contributing to a tapestry. I want to sow my thread into pictures that will endure far beyond my own life. When I'm gone I will leave a rent in someone's tapestry but I hope there are many other pictures that I've contributed to that will continue to be enjoyed for generations.