Lasting Words

What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others. ~ Pericles

I remembered the trip he had taken.  I didn't tell Michael, but I knew something had occurred a couple of months ago to make him think about life, his circumstances today, and the future a little differently. Now it made sense.

He had just come back from his grandfather's funeral in Arkansas.  We met for a coffee to catch up, it had been a while since we've seen each other with his move to Texas and the holiday's pulling people in different directions.  It was good to see him.  His high energy always provides a charge to me and it seems after our talks I take away a little something.  This day, I would take away a lot more.

He told me about the trip he made to Arkansas to see his grandfather when they knew he didn't have much longer to live.  While visiting with them, his grandfather asked Michael if he could help give him a good bath.  His grandmother couldn't handle his grandfather too well and he wanted a good scrubbing, a feeling I am sure we've all had in some way.   Michael helped his grandfather, lifting him in the shower, placing him on the chair.  While in the process of helping his grandfather, and I am not too quite sure at what point, when Michael had an embrace around his grandfather to move him, his grandfather whispered in his ear, "They don't care how much money you leave them."

I thought about what Michael just told me, a dying man's last lesson to his grandson, "they don't care how much money you leave them."  And I knew when that happened, I remembered our conversation as he drove back from his last visit seeing his grandfather.  Michael was in a very reflective mood, discussing how the pressures of work and the drive to provide a good living for your family can pull you off center, away from the core of the person you're meant to be.

Sometimes we do things for the right reasons in the wrong way, not realizing that what we do, does have an impact not only on ourselves, but others as well.  And in some cases, this is only visible to someone who sees what's going on from the outside, who has the wisdom to see it, to help us understand what's going on from the inside.

We didn't talk at all about the funeral, but I suspect during the majority of the service those words echoed in his mind.  I imagine as he looked around the room at his family he was wondering how to give himself more to them in a more meaningful way, and transform into the essence he was meant to be; what he felt in his heart.

I am thankful for Michael to share that moment in his life with me.  I imagined that scene of Michael and his grandfather with their arms around each other,  and the grandfather whispering "they don't care how much money you leave them" tens of times. I see it in my mind as if I was there.  I am guilty.

As I was driving yesterday, I had this on my mind and it made me think a simple thought, "It's not what you leave them, it's what you leave WITHIN them."

Daily deposits   …..  daily deposits.


PICTURE:  My grandmother with her grandkids.....she made a lot of deposits I still pull out.