Legacy

Reflections from the forest floor….

When I hike, it informs my wonder, and I am a noticer and a worshipper, constantly spellbound by the dance between intricacy and majesty in all of creation. Nothing awakens praise in me like immersing myself in a corner of the world that hasn’t been overtly tidied and manicured by human hands.

Typically, as I make my way, my gaze is out and around, or even upward to the leafy canopy. But during the past year or so, again and again I have found myself captivated by the forest floor -always littered by dead leaves and branches and often trees downed by determined beavers, disease or high winds. It is abundantly evident that the effects of decomposition impact the ecosystem as much as that which lives and breathes and scurries about.

Recently, I was struck by the sight of a tree sprawled out adjacent to the path. The massive trunk and the enormous exposed fingers of its upended roots testified to how far and wide and deeply its reach extended in life. Surrounding its footprint, the earth bore witness that the trunk and branches that once reached heavenward providing shade and shelter, though no longer vibrant with leafy green extremities, still offered the nourishment of its being to creatures and critters and seeds below. As I stood there, I found myself contemplating how long this fallen giant would continue to create a fertile environment for new life to flourish. And my thoughts wandered down well-worn paths of reflection on the still evident impact of Norman’s life. Today is his birthday. He would have been 56. Every trail with downed trees is graced by an ever-deepening appreciation for his legacy of love, sacrifice, investment in others…it was a way of living that he called, “playing the long game.”

Legacy is powerful. The reality that we can have an impact beyond our own years of vitality on the earth is a notion that drives some to work tirelessly to excel in their field, to invent or build, or to generate monetary wealth that can elevate and establish their family name long after their demise. In some cases, the legacy left behind from a life lived selfishly or carelessly is a devastating one that carries bitterness forth from mothers and fathers to sons and daughters and beyond.

We live in a culture that underestimates the powerful legacy of a life lived simply with kindness and integrity. Once in a while there will be the “viral” spread of a story that celebrates this kind of life, as though it were a unicorn sighting, but the truth is that this way of living isn’t so rare, but it does tend to be done humbly and quietly. A million selfless, small and beautiful choices made day after day, shared faith, work, laughter, hardship, and sorrow pay the invaluable dividends of love and grace reproduced in the lives of others.

There’s a little landscaped outside our bedroom window that we filled in over the years. We dubbed it “Hosta Hill.” I’ve been searching for the right fountain to put out there in his honor. I wanted it to be something that captured his essence in some kind of way, and I just kept thinking, “I’ll know it when I see it.” Low and behold, I found The One.

Happy Birthday, Norman.