afterlife

"What makes greatness is starting something that lives after you"-- Ralph W. Sockman

I read that yesterday on some calendar my mom had in the kitchen and today while driving I finally understood what it meant. And I know it's an age-old concept, but just the crystal-clearness of it all made me so excited..

As I was driving and saw the magical glistening sparkles of sunshine on the pond and then averted my attention to the mud and seemingly "ugly" things while passing an old farmyard... I realized this really is heaven AND hell.. right here, on earth.

So with heaven and hell being metaphors, afterlife can be so much more easily understood.

Physically, two people can produce children..
this is their literal afterlife
to carry on a family legacy, or perhaps just biological genes.
or someone can produce great artwork, businesses, writings, philosophies, etc.


*Afterlife is what we leave behind in the lives of others.. not just when our physical bodies deteriorate from existence.

What I find to be the most powerful is the simple gestures...

There's this security guard on campus whom I'm always looking forward to seeing when I come in for dreadful 3hr long classes. He always will say hi back to me and be a smiling, happy person.

It's the seemingly littlest things in life that leave the biggest impact.
Everyday we leave something behind.

As we grow, like a creature in a nautilus shell, we leave our past
creating this beautiful spiraly enclosement of memories.
Even the broken, shattered pieces formed by past hurts,doubts,and shames add a dimension that "perfection" doesn't contain, thus being perfectly imperfect.

These experiences from the past that we've grown out of in order to move to the present, are our afterlife.

Our actions in the world today live on in the lives of tomorrow-



what will you leave behind today ?

(: