Your legacy is every life you touch.
This is something I've been thinking about quite a lot recently. Today my dear friend shared this sentence, and I took it as a sign to get back to writing. I still want to write when it flows (which usually means after midnight, a classic) but this year I want to be a bit more consistent. For selfish reasons though, because writing is a form of expression that I've always found therapeutic. It's another safe space besides dancing where I wonder and wander and create. Nevertheless I thought it might be interesting to get a sneak peek into that world every now and then so for every month of the year, I'll create a post. Long or short, I don't care. Important or not, that's secondary. But a post, a poem, a thought. That I will promise to share monthly and I hope both you and me will find it interesting and journey through the year together.
Now finally, here is today's and simultaneously January's thought. Let me remind you of the sentence I started with:
Your legacy is every life you touch.
What a brutally beautiful thought that is. It makes me question my ways of showing up for people, my ways of touching, what that touch is, how it feels.
What is your legacy? How do you want it to look - or maybe rather how do you want it to feel like?
I certainly want mine to feel like the biggest and warmest hug. The one that says you're safe here, the one that's filled with empathy and love. That's how I want my legacy.
It's funny thinking about your legacy and what you're leaving behind. Usually it is connected to one leaving the earth and how we then remember that person. But we're shaping our legacies in this very moment. Because aren't we all just these little colorful mosaics, that have been built during our whole life. If I'm not a mosaic of all the people that I've loved, who have loved me, then I don't know what I am.
I hug you how I do, because my best friend always did that and made me feel special. I drink my morning coffee with a splash of milk, because my dad has always done it that way. I still swim in the ocean with a smirk on my face, when I remember the nickname 'splash' that my big brother gave me. I now live with more ease, because my roommate showed me how it's possible. I believe in loving and being loved unconditionally, because of a friendship that made me realise what it means. I see the positive side of things, because my grandma does it too and it moves mountains.
See what I mean? You, who are reading this, are probably a part of my mosaic, a part of me. So thank you for whatever it is you have taught me, just by existing. Colliding with a person is never an accident, I believe. We're all here to teach each other lessons, good or bad. Touch and leave legacies. And the funny thing is - you'll be a teacher of the people you meet, want it or not. Why not trying to make your lesson, your legacy, be about the things that give someone a reason to trust in life just a little more. Because what a magical thing it is to be moved by others, move others, and see the mosaic come more and more together with every new touch.
❤️,
Inka