A friend of mine died after a three-year battle with lung cancer.   Last night I attended his memorial service.  Family and friends told stories.  I learned more about him in an hour than I had in 20 years of friendship.  But the most poignant moments for me came at the end, when an old friend of his sang a song he’d written.  I thought I’d share the words with you.  I don’t think he’d mind.

“It’s the Lessons, Love and Laughter”

By Tom Walker

When your sun no longer sets

What remains will last forever

In the lives of those who love you

In the hearts of those who grieve

It matters not what’s in your will

Rather how you use your skill

It’s the lessons, love and laughter

That’s the legacy you leave.

                    ***

Everyone is a teacher

Every act is a seed

Every day is a lesson

To be bound up or freed.

Every birth a beginning

Of the life that you make

Every breath is new page

Till the final breath you take.

                    ***

It’s how you stand through the trials

It’s how you walk through the pain

It’s how you face every morning

Whether sunshine or the rain

It’s what you build out of nothing

It’s what you give to your friends

It’s how you walk your journey

More than how the journey ends.

Namaste.

candle burning