January 25: Writing Prompt #25-Dearly departed

Write your own eulogy.

Hmmmm….write my own eulogy. I do not feel equipped to do this. I did think about it and try to write it out in my head on the long drive back from Oregon today, but I could never get past the first line. I think eulogies are for others to write about us.  I am really not sure what would be said about me upon death. Like everyone, we’d like to think it would be good, that we would be missed, that we had an impact on the world in a positive, uplifting way (like George in “It’s a Wonderful Life”), but most of us will never get the chance to know exactly how we affected others and what the world would have been like without us in it. 

What I do know about my death is that I want to be cremated. I want my ashes spread over an ocean or the mountains or some other such breath-taking natural wonder.  I want to leave on my own terms, if possible, and I want to leave this world knowing I have accomplished what God put me here to accomplish, to have fulfilled my purpose, however small or insignificant that purpose may have been. 

When I was working at a retail store at the mall as a college student, I left the store one day to go on my dinner break, and this man who had been in the store earlier that day stopped to talk to me.  He gave me a card he had bought for me and told me how much my smile had meant to him.  Whatever was going on in his life, the mere act of a warm greeting and smile as he came into the store was enough to bring some hope and life back into him.  I was so shocked by that. I barely remembered my brief interaction with him in the store, but he couldn’t forget it.  It’s that kind of small thing that makes all the difference. It’s so important to remember that each thing we say or do can have such a positive or negative impact on others.  I want to have a positive, uplifting impact and die knowing I did all I could to show kindness, love, and joy to others daily, even when I was not feeling it myself. 

“Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.” Colossians 4:5-6