Making your mark!

As I was writing earlier today about my niece, it reminded me of something I had written some time back.  We were asked to write something about her as she prepares to graduate from the University of North Carolina Asheville.  Her sorority does a ceremony for graduating seniors where family members write things they remember most as she was growing up.  As I pondered what to write, I remembered the following poem and pulled it out of my archives.  I did not write this for her or for her sorority, however, my writing today triggered the basis for originally writing this...what do you want to be remembered for?  So here goes:

Making Your Mark!

Leaders are asked where do you stand

What mark have you made on this great land

What influence you’ve made to measure success

On what others would label you as one of the best

Is it wealth that says your mark has been hit?

Or is it the laughter created and amount of your wit

Do positions matter in measuring your place?

Or the title you receive and the corner office space

Why is it we look at the mark as something material?

When true rewards from your mark are often intangible

Where pride and satisfaction come from the feeling within

And true happiness is something you cannot even spend

For making your mark must start from inside

And be lead by emotion and feelings and pride

And no one can tell you what your mark should be

As it is built from the base like the roots of a tree

Success is not the miles traveled or places you see

But what you shared with others while adding humility

It’s not that you climbed a mountain because it was there

But why you did it and in the end what you shared

For in the end it is not from the place that you start

But where you have landed and what comes from the heart

So the next time someone asks you what mark have you made

Tell them it’s the hearts touched and the groundwork laid

For long after I am gone and the ashes are released

I want to be remembered for truly resting in peace

And not for what I was or for being courageous and bold

But for who I was and the values in life that I hold

Larry