Making ripples..

My father, Rubin Salmansohn, passed this morning at 8:55 am.

So much to feel, so much to say, where do I begin?

How about with an old proverb I once shared with my father: "Everything that is not given, is lost."

I sent this proverb to my father back in 1996. It topped a few extra paragraphs -- all filling a page torn from a book who's name I no longer remember.

My father saved this book's page clipping in its post-marked envelope. My mother returned it to me recently, and it seemed fitting to quote this clipping now, at his passing -- since its message is so invaluable for how we should all be leading our lives.

THE CLIPPING I SENT MY FATHER IN 1996...

"Everything that is not given, is lost."

Read those words again - and really take them in.

"Everything that is not given is lost."

This is a potent wake-up call.

Because we are mortal, every talent, skill, ability we possess, every thought and feeling we ever have, every beautiful sight we ever see, every material possession we own, will ultimately be lost.

UNLESS WE SHARE IT.

Unless we give what we have to others - to our spouse, our children, our friends, our neighbors - to the strangers we encounter on our path - what we know and value will be irrevocably and utterly gone.

BUT...

If we give freely of our minds, hearts, spirits - who we are - then what matters most to us will never die - but will live forever in the psyches of not only all those who know us - but everyone who encounters them - and then everyone who encounters those who knew them - in an infinite regression of mysteriously unseen effect.

That's why the metaphor of the a pebble in a pond is so potent.

We toss the pebble of our soul into the pond of life and ripples are created.

If we hoard ourselves - our gifts, our talents, our love, our thoughts, our feelings, our insights, our words - we will make a very little splash and the ripples will soon end.

But if we give fully, with abandon and abundance, the ripples go out infinitely, overlapping and intermingling with other souls.

Viewed this way...what kind of ripple do you want to be?