Let’s All Leave Something Behind<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n I don\u2019t want to seem morose, but I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about how the world will be when I\u2019m not here anymore. I am sure the world will go on without even taking notice of my demise \u2013 but that\u2019s not exactly what I\u2019m talking about. What will I leave behind? Will I leave something behind that would not have been here if I had not been born?<\/span><\/p>\n I see so many people saving money, accumulating wealth, saving for retirement, or leaving money to their children and grandchildren. But is that all our lives are meant to be? Is that all we really want to leave behind?<\/span><\/p>\n Money was here before I was born, and it will certainly be long after I am gone. So leaving money behind is not leaving something of myself behind. Not that I have any money to leave behind.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I want to leave something behind that wasn\u2019t here on the day I was born; something that wouldn\u2019t have been here if I had not been born.<\/span><\/p>\n I certainly have not lived a perfect life and I\u2019m sure some will be glad to see me dead. That is how it is with many of us, I\u2019m afraid. But one thing I know for sure: I\u2019m leaving many things behind that were not here on the day I was born.<\/span><\/p>\n Anyone who, like me, has children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren\u2026 leaves behind something that would have never been here had they not been born. So if you have children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren, you are leaving something behind.<\/span><\/p>\n But that\u2019s not enough. While your children are part of you and came from you, they cannot let others inside your mind or your heart so they can know you even though you\u2019ve passed away.<\/span><\/p>\n I have children and grandchildren and I love them all very much. I will leave them behind when I die. So the world has been changed because I was here.<\/span><\/p>\n Billions of people change the world by having children, but very few change the world by leaving a part of themselves behind.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019ve written hundreds of songs, poems, essays, and short stories. I\u2019ve saved a lot of them and they\u2019ll survive me. Someday, after I\u2019ve died, my kids will listen to and read some of the things I\u2019ve written and by doing so they will look inside my head and my heart. And maybe reading what I\u2019ve written or listening to the songs I wrote will remind them of me and the good things about me, or the silly things about me, or things they never knew about how I thought or what I felt in my heart. Maybe they will see some of the things I\u2019ve written as my successes and other things I’ve behind as my failures. What I hope, more than anything, is that what I\u2019ve left behind reminds them to leave something of themselves behind that was not here before they were.<\/span><\/p>\n To me, we all must set a goal of changing the world if only a little bit. If we don\u2019t, it will be as if we were never born. Even if we leave children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren behind. We all need to leave a piece of ourselves behind so our children, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren, and those who survive us can know us.<\/span><\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t take much to leave something of yourself behind. You don\u2019t need to be a great writer or artist. You don\u2019t need to be handy with your hands. You don\u2019t even need to be creative.<\/span><\/p>\n You can write a letter and keep it hidden so someday someone will find it and know you better. Just write down your thoughts on a piece of paper \u2013 keep it safe and try to make sure no one sees it until you want them to see it. You don\u2019t have to be creative to leave something of yourself behind and change the world if only just a tiny bit.<\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019re good with your hands, make a quilt, or make some pottery, or build something. Anything you leave behind changes the world just a bit\/<\/span><\/p>\n But if all you leave behind is your money you\u2019ve not changed the world at all.<\/span><\/p>\n Most of us do not think our existence will change the world at all. Most of us who are not rich and powerful don\u2019t think the world will even know we ever existed. We think we don\u2019t have the power to change the world at all \u2013 but we do.<\/span><\/p>\n Oh yes, we do. And more than you know.<\/span><\/p>\n If you leave just one thing behind that you created, then you\u2019ve changed the world. Maybe only a little bit, but you\u2019ve changed it by adding something to it. And that makes a difference.<\/span><\/p>\n You can do a lot of other things to leave your mark on the world \u2013 to leave something behind that changes the world. Just think of all the things you could do to make the world a little different, a little better than it was before you were born.<\/span><\/p>\n You can start a tradition of giving, or you can paint, or you can write a book, an essay, a short story, or a poem. You can write a song, make pottery, or build something.\u00a0 Draw a picture, write a journal, or just take time out to write a special letter about yourself and how you feel about things. Something from your heart that will survive you \u2014 things you accomplished, things you thought, places you visited, your favorite memories. Share your dreams, both the ones that you made come true and the ones that you didn\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n If we all leave something behind, we all can change the world. What a shame it would be to leave the world without leaving just a little bit of ourselves behind.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Let’s All Leave Something Behind I don\u2019t want to seem morose, but I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about how the world will be when I\u2019m not here anymore. I am sure the world will go on without even taking notice of my demise \u2013 but that\u2019s not exactly what I\u2019m talking about. What will I leave behind? Will\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[228],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28231"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28231"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28233,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28231\/revisions\/28233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}