What will I be saying when I depart this life?
Not in a literal sense.
Stay with me.
After over seventeen years as a working minister my beloved Richard gave his final sermon in early September of 1995. It was to a small group of devotees gathered in our living room. Calling it a sermon may be a bit of an overstatement. It was a sharing. His health was declining, though we did not think at the time that his passing was imminent.
Though we did not know it would be his final lecture it did have a very definite energy to it. If not ominous it did feel somehow monumental. Circumstantial. Consequential.
Richard spoke about what are called the “fruits of the spirit.” The particulars of what comprises those are not so relevant. What was and is striking to me about his subject matter that day is that the aspects that are termed “fruits of the spirit” were central to the way Richard lived and served. He lived seeking to become more fruitful in his living and in his expressing. He wanted to align with and embody spiritual attributes in his human experience. He continually stressed this form of “ripening” in what he taught and in how he served.
I realized after his passing that while not a conscious choice he sermonized on what was most central to his heart in his final sharing.
He saved the best for last.
It was what Richard’s Soul was saying when he departed this life. What he was cosmically communicating. The energy his Soul was emitting. Being fruitful was a Soul mission and so he left behind a trail of spirit Essence in not only word but also form.
The best for sure. And it came at the last.
I do not currently have a prognosis that would lead to think that I am at the final days or months of my lifetime. I am not really that old, at least in terms of current life span statistics.
Yet I know for sure that I have way less time left than I have already lived. I know I am nearing the end of my active vocation in its current form. I ponder and contemplate purpose and legacy while giving little thought to goals or accomplishments.
If I were saving the best for last what will that be?
If I knew I was going to give my final sermon, what would I preach about?
If I were to laser focus my energy this day, knowing it would be my lasting emission, what would I choose to emit?
If this was the last blog I would ever compose, would I choose this topic and these questions?
What has been central to my living expression and to my personal ministry?
I pose these questions to you, dear readers, rather than supply my answers.
While you may not compose sermons or blogs, I assure you that your life is a ministry of sorts. You are always emitting energy. You are always leaving a trail. Traces in your path. That trail and those traces are indeed your legacy. They are what you will leave behind.
Richard left behind the fruits of the spirit. He continues to do so via my remembrance of him and his lasting best.
I am clearer by the day about what I consider to be my lasting legacy.
I am under no illusion that I have endless time left.
I get up every morning with a prayer in my heart that I will be of useful service while I am still here, embodied. I seek to become the best that I can be. I arise willing to forgive and open to evolve and thus uplift this world.
In living thusly, I know that if this is my last day on earth it will be my personal version of the best for last.
