Great Escape Podcast episode 22 - Legacy

- [Stuart Morris] This is the Great Escape Podcast. Episode 22.
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- Yesterday was a tough day. For lots of reasons but primarily because we said good-bye to an amazing lady, one of my longest standing friends, Ann Collins. She has been fighting cancer for 10 12 years and kept bouncing back. But the thing that's really stuck with me is how everybody who was at the funeral spoke of how she was always positive, always finding beauty in the world, always trying to sow something of joy, or some uplifting thought. And that reminded me of something that when I'm teaching Celebrants, I think it's the last slide of the course, is to think about our legacy. What is it we want to leave behind? When somebody else is writing our eulogy, what three things would we want them to say about us? And yeah, we're not perfect, we're all human, we're all flawed people, we all have good days and bad days. But overall, what is the sense that we want to leave in the world? And yesterday evening I was visiting another friend who happens to run an amazing Buddhist retreat center, I'll leave a link in the show notes if you are looking for somewhere to just go and be, it's really lovely. And, as I was standing in the loo, hey, like you do, I read one of those little signs that people hang in loos, and it really touched me and I thought I'd share it with you guys today.
"Our's is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good. What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts, adding, adding to, adding more, continuing. We know that it does not take everyone on Earth to bring justice and peace, but only a small determined group who will not give up during the first, the second, or even the hundredth gale. One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in the dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of the soul in shadowy times like these, to be fierce and to show mercy towards others, both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do. There will always be times when you feel discouraged. I too have felt despair many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair for it. Nor, will I entertain it. It is not allowed to eat from my plate. In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall. When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for. So let me encourage you, whatever you're going through right now, remember that you are a great ship. Find the way of allowing your soul to be fully lit, fully alive, and go out onto the great oceans of the world and make the change that you can make. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Great Escape Podcast. You can find other episodes at all the usual places, on iTunes, Stitcher and Spotify. Or at the website: www.greatescapepodcast.com/episodes and if you'd like to contact me to talk about any element of this episode or others have covered please go to: www.greatescapepodcast.com/contact and you can find all the ways of getting hold of me there. And if you're stuck in a situation, and you can't find the way out, please go there, send me a message and let's see how we can work together to get you unstuck and moving forward with your life again. Please do share this podcast with your friends and family or other people you think might appreciate it. And comment on episodes, or send me a message, I'd love to keep the conversation going.
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Tara Stone retreat centre https://tarastone.org/

The Great Escape titles music was created by Darren Reddick