Hope. My friend’s funeral was this week. The outpouring of love and the sheer number of people that this man touched during his short time with us was staggering. I couldn’t help but think of that one small pebble in the lake, that when tossed in the water the ripple effect happens. The love this man shared with everyone he met had a profound ripple effect on his family and his community. In the procession, to the gravesite, I was so humbled when I saw a young man, a complete stranger, pulled over on the opposite side of the road as the procession went by. He was standing outside his truck, flashers going, with his hat in his hand and his other hand over his heart as we drove by. The line of police cars, fire trucks, and vehicles went as far as I could see. Then on the side road, through a rural area, a mother and her daughter stood at attention, hands over their hearts as we drove by. Hope. That’s what I saw. Love and pride are what I felt. I have never been so humbled and touched. “I alone cannot change the world but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” Mother Teresa. My dear friend, you may not have changed the world, but you changed the world of your loved ones by just being you. I may not get to talk to you again, hear your laugh, see your face or hug your neck but you are forever in my heart.
While at the funeral I got a call that I couldn’t take so I followed up with a text message which read that my granddaughter was possibly in labor. Our family has three boys due any time now. Such a blessing. By the time the service was over I was told this was not a false call, baby is coming as I write this column. I can’t help but reflect on something my grandmother used to say to me when I was young and asked questions about life and death. She told me that for every death, God gives us hope, he gives us another life. Just wow. So many times in my life this has proven to be true. This new child is also hope, hope for the future. I also got an update on my Mother who has been in the hospital for a time and she is improving daily, yet another example of hope and love.
Your kindness challenge for the week is to seek those things in your life that give you hope. Then share that hope with those you love. This is a kindness that will have a ripple effect on everyone you know. You can be that example of hope by doing something so simple as the actions of the young man by his truck and the mother and daughter in their yard. “Let everything we do and say be an expression of the beauty in our heart, always based on love.” Don Miguel Kuiz. Love is the foundation for all things. I saw so many “old” friends today, we shared our love for our friend, his family, and for each other as we shared our loss and consoled each other in our grief.
“There is a ripple effect to everything. Everything you think, say, do, feel, choose, believe, and be. You either cause it, create it, call it forth, choose it, or allow it.” Unknown. Think carefully about each of these. Love is our hope. Every time you create positive ripples in the world you touch others, who receive it, who cause their own ripples in the world that touch others who receive it, who cause their own ripples.
