"On Leaving Your Mark"

leave your mark: to have an effect that changes someone or something.  

Designated a Historical Landmark, the small law office carries the name "The Skinner House," the surname belonging to Eugene Skinner, the original founder of the city.  While the front of the building displays a large, covered porch with wide steps inviting entry, the back was a weed-laden, graveled area, stark and barren.

In my job as a gardener, a personal bonus is work efforts are quite apparent.  The appearance of my work space often shows a visible improvement after completing a job when compared to its beginning.  This back area is a perfect example, where the contrast could not have been more evident.  A narrow bed was created adjacent to the foundation and bordered with smooth, melon-sized rocks.  Planted with succulents and drought tolerant plants for summer bloom it was transformed with color, the bright orange of California Poppies and purples of a hearty, wild bloomer.  Providing a morning greeting, a feast for the eyes for the ones who work there, I couldn’t resist the temptation to bring in some spring color as well for the season six months away.  The daffodils have faded, but that bed is now filled with tulips, and the colors are stunning.  The bulbs were planted without the knowledge of the employees, a welcome surprise, an exclamation point to the end of a dreary winter.   I guess it could be said I left my mark.

We all leave one in this life—our mark, that is, and not necessarily of the kind just referenced.  It may be planned or deliberate; more often it is unintended.  It might be a positive one, perhaps negative.  Leaving one’s mark isn’t about making a casual impression either but, rather, having an influence on others with a long-term effect.  It is affecting another’s life in such a manner he/she is not the same person after an encounter or personal involvement as they were before, the contrast as real as before and after photographs.

Recently I was told of a grandfather who left such a mark, a positive one.  He didn’t do anything unusual or out-of-the-ordinary, but the impact of the kind of person he was lives on.  The way he lived his life with kindness, acceptance, inclusion, and love has never been forgotten by a grandson.  I doubt this grandfather had any idea decades later his mark would be felt, along with the desire of emulation.

Where and how you leave your mark is personal and individual.  For some it may be through family or in social and business contacts; for others the goal may be relative to concerns of the environment or planet; for another it may be, like the grandfather, in the day-to-day living of life and the encounters and relationships which occur.

 

Personally, my goal is of a spiritual nature.  My hope is to leave a mark which continues for all eternity.  “That’s lofty, egotistical even,” some might say; others, “It makes no sense.”  While some may feel that way, the reality is I have been given one life to live.  My desire is for it to have significance, to have value and purpose.  My aspiration is that, in living my life, others may see God and seek Him out for themselves.  

And so I will continue tending lawns and gardens by mowing, blowing, and edging.  I will weed like there is no tomorrow and rake mountains of fallen leaves.  I will weed-eat, deal with blackberries and ivy, and address a to-do list which never ends, leaving my mark as a gardener.  My true goal, however, is to leave an invisible mark, one not seen with the physical but the spiritual eye, a mark which is eternal.  

That is the mark I hope to leave.