The lilies are blooming here at the homestead. I planted them, each one with love and hope, when we first arrived here six years ago. Next year someone elese will be admiring their beauty and perhaps wondering, as would I, about the woman who tended them and then left them behind.
Wherever we go in life, we leave a part of ourself. It may be in a flower we planted, in a tree we cut down, in the heart of someone to whom we brought a smile, in a memory left with someone we gave a helping hand to. Even a chance encounter and a short conversation with a stranger contains a footprint of who we are.
Conversely, we take away a bit of something or someone from every place we've been. It may be a job, a location, a quick visit or a long stay - someone, something, will have touched our life and left an imprint on our heart.
When I think back to my time here, I'll remember with a smile the eagle flying overhead, the deer in the garden, the pink grasshopper that showed up this summer, and the snapping turtle that visited us each year. Moments of walking in beauty, of feeling a part of a greater whole, of knowing that all - birds, bees, wildflowers and winds whistling through the trees - brought me moments of grace.
Walk in beauty.
