Love is all that we can leave behind

/ Rae Cod

Today we were at a family funeral. Nobody looks forward to funerals, and yet they bring great catharsis.  They’re full to the brim with emotion: grief, sadness, laughter, gratitude, and a deep sense of connection. 

A legacy of love

Funerals give us a chance to reflect on our own lives and mortality, as we remember our lost loved ones and all they brought to our lives.  What I noticed most today wasn’t the tears, the grief, or the loss: it was the love.  

I saw how much love one person can bring into this world, and the profound impact this love has on those left behind.  I saw how people share in this love as part of the grieving process: hearts open, rifts heal, and bonds are forged. 

We can sometimes be so preoccupied by all we want to achieve and accomplish in this life, that we can forget the most important legacy we leave behind is also the simplest: love.  

We will love, we will be loved, and it’s the depth of this love we will be remembered for.  Love isn’t only the best thing we can leave behind, it’s the only thing.

With that in mind, I’m going to leave you with a few quotes I found that speak to the importance of love:

Love doesn’t die with death. Love is like liquid; when it pours out, it seeps into others’ lives. Love changes form and shape. Love gets into everything. Death doesn’t conquer all; love does. Love wins every single time. Love wins by lasting through death. Love wins by loving more, loving again, loving without fear.”

Kate O’Neill – Surviving Death

“The only thing of importance, when we depart, will be the traces of love we have left behind.

Albert Schweitzer

Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul there is no such thing as separation.

Rumi

 

Every act of kindness is a piece of love we leave behind.

Paul Williams

12 thoughts on “Love is all that we can leave behind”

  4. Thank you for reminding me of a time when I sat across the kitchen table from my grandmother. She looked at me with so much love I felt she was imparting it into my heart in a very intentional way, as if she knew I would need it in the days and years ahead. She was right. Her love has been such a legacy of help and strength and peace and goodness.

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  6. I went to a visitation recently. She had 3 children, many grandchildren, and even a few great grandchildren. Of course, there were lots of tears – yet the love they all had for her and felt from her was so beautiful. You could just feel it in the room – the photos – the art/crafts she’d made with pictures of her family – these people were everything to her – and they knew it. It was very moving.

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