Shawn L. Bird

our finger prints don’t fade from the lives we’ve touched

(Will Fetters)

and on our journey we never know which lives we’ve touched and which ones we haven’t. Those we remember most fondly may not remember us at all.  We might have no memory of a person, and yet s/he clings to a memory of us. I suppose this means that we are advised to live our lives so that anyone who remembers us will have a worthy memory. We should strive every day to be inspiring, loving, and considerate to everyone we meet, to give a positive gift of ourselves that will leave them better for having known us. We probably don’t, though.

A young lady who requests to be anonymous recently remarked, “just because you don’t remember it, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.” We can move through lives blissfully unaware of how our words are impacting others for better or worse. An innocent comment or a thrown away observation that means nothing to us, lost as soon as it’s uttered, may rest heavily on a heart for years. What can we do about that? We only own our actions and reactions, we can’t be responsible for those of anyone else.

Words we think are kind can be reinterpreted unintentionally, or twisted by someone who wants to believe the worst. Innocent situations can be re-written in memory to mean something else. It would an awesome goal to aim to speak only words that are uplifting and kind, in order to lessen the possibility of someone being inadvertently crushed. Such intentions can never be fulfilled, but we should do our best.

We never know when or why they’ll be dusting for our prints.