“There are two ways of spreading light, to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it” – Edith Wharton
Today I woke thinking of someone I have never met. Now it may seem odd that my first thought of the day is of a perfect stranger but I am sure you can relate if you give it enough thought. There are plenty of people we encounter in life that we give too much thought or emotion considering they are just strangers. Think about it. The person that cuts you off during your commute, the telemarketer that calls your house, the person at Starbucks that spells your name wrong or maybe someone at the gym didn’t put the equipment back where it belonged. Everyday we give strangers control of our emotions and we go on and on to friends about how someone we don’t even know did X, Y and Z. You know what I am talking about. There are those strangers that touch you in good ways with a helpful hand, a kind word or a friendly smile but those are the stories we hear less of.
So it really isn’t so odd that today I woke up thinking of someone I have never met. Unlike the reasons above I was thinking of this person for all the right reasons. Upon waking this morning I sat outside and just let my thoughts come to me. I reflected upon all I have learned in the past few years and the journey that led me to start this blog after signing up for a blog challenge through Live Your Legend. I don’t know the founder Scott Dinsmore personally and, sadly, I never had the chance to meet him before his passing. Had it not been for Scott’s passing I may not have heard of Live Your Legend. Regardless of what led me to the site it and its purpose has been a part of my life since. The team at Live Your Legend has continued on the work Scott started and I joined a blog challenge they recently presented to its followers.
Back to what seems like a different person and a decade ago but was really just a few years I was in the middle of a major shift in my life. I was in that very scary place of realizing everything I had worked so hard for all of my life wasn’t what I really wanted and trying to discover who the real me was and what I was all about. Around this time I logged onto Facebook and learned of a young man who had died in a freak accident hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro and watched a Tedx talk he did. Scott bounded off the monitor at me in that talk and it was like when you go to church one random Sunday and the sermon was meant for you. The passion of what Scott was saying was evident in every word and even more importantly I knew he lived it every day of his life. Scott founded Live Your Legend to help people pursue their passions and do the work they love. To do the work that makes them come alive, question the norms and ask why not. Not only did Scott believe in the importance of people doing the work they loved but he lived his life to help people do just that. When I heard Scott’s talk I felt like finally someone was saying what I was thinking.
Before Scott’s passing and even more so since I have tried to live my life in one of two ways. To be the light or the mirror that reflects it. To share Scott’s message, to share my own, to provide hope, to lend a hand, or to just be more present in my own life. Along the way I have also hit pause on many things and sat with silence so that I could find out what it was I truly wanted in my personal and professional life. With so much happening around us and the world a click away on a phone or computer it is hard to sit in silence but it is the best thing you can do for yourself and you might be surprised what you find out about yourself. If you find you have done all you set out to do in life and have become bored with your life perhaps it is time to get to know yourself. Your true self.
As it is with strangers you do not mourn their death as those near to them do. If you even know of it at all. I am lucky. Because I never knew Scott personally I never lost him. I lost the possibility of meeting him one day and learning from him directly but he left behind so many videos and blogs that it will take a long time before I run out of things to learn from him. That is the way with people you never meet. They can impact your life in profound ways they never imagined. With one kind word or one kind act. We are all placed in the path of each other’s live at a time and place that could leave a footprint on someone. I am sure you can recall at least one moment where someone’s kindness has impacted you. Take time, be a little more present, be the light or the mirror and you never know when you will be the stranger that makes a difference in one persons life.