“I am a part of all that I have met.”

— John Milton

Everyone I ever have met has left a mark on me that has changed me in one way or another.  When I was very small, before I had the chance to venture beyond my own tiny world, I assumed that everyone else was exactly like me.  Surely they had the same hopes and dreams.  They thought about the world in the same way I did.  They lived the same life I was living, but in a different location.

When I began to move in a larger world, I discovered that I might have been mistaken.  There were people who lived with despair; and their despair touched my heart with sadness.  There were people who grieved; and I could feel the emptiness and weary sense of loss run like ice-water through my veins.  There were people who raged with a fury that knocked me off my center and curled me into a ball that engulfed my heart and kept it safe while it beat at ten times its normal speed.  Each new person I met left a mark on me and showed me parts of myself that I had not explored before others awakened them.  I carry the marks of those I have met on my surface, and I carry the pieces of me they have awakened deep within me.

The more I have been touched by others and discovered the hidden aspects of myself, the more I have thought about which parts of me I would like to bring to my dealings with other people.  If others rub off on me and awaken my awareness to new discoveries about myself, then the same must be true about the way I affect the other people I meet.  If I can walk out in love, perhaps that love will touch the love in the soul of another.  If I can walk out in peace, perhaps my peace will resonate with that of another and calm her anger.  What do you want to show as you walk today?  What would you like to leave behind in your interactions with others?  What mark will you leave on the world today?