A 100 years from now, none of us will be here.
And even if we were to die tomorrow, the world will carry on- softly, indifferently.
When my father passed away, one thing that kept striking me was just this.
After his passing, when I would walk the streets he used to walk, when I would see the surroundings and see people walking by, going about their activities, and even us- me and my mother doing our daily chores and living life anyway, something inside me would pause and let me come to touch with how most of the world remains unchanged.
This year will mark 10 years since his passing, and though time has brought many changes, our neighbourhood is still the same.
The streets he used to walk is still there.
The shop he used to bring sweets from is where I still buy sweets from.
The monastery he used to visit is still standing, and so are most of the other things and places that he had touched upon.
Today, I am reminded about how one day it is also going to be the same for us.
The mountains we saw will still be standing.
The roads we took will still be winding.
The places we loved will still be visited.
The books we read will still be lying somewhere on a shelf long after we are gone.
This is the gentle truth- we are nobody extraordinary for the world to stop for us.
We will die someday, and the world will carry on- unmoved, untouched by our absence.
But the thing is…
Even if the world carries on, I am thinking about how we can leave behind kind proofs that we have lived.
-That we were here— feeling, loving, giving, trying, failing, renewing, and living through it all.
So many people live up to 80 or even 90, but once gone, they have no traces of them having lived or any signs of who they were.
There is nothing I know about my great-grandparents, not even their names, but to think that because of them I am here, to think that they too were alive once, having gone through life’s ups and downs, leading a family, knowing love, knowing suffering, feels unreal.
So today I am reminded about what kind proofs we can leave behind to show that we have lived.
Maybe not for everybody. But at least to somebody.
Not for the sake of anything (because it really does not matter what happens after you die)
Not even for the sake of legacy, but for the sake of simply showing gentle living, kind living, loving living, or simply as a mark of gratitude for having been born and alive for a brief period in the history of time.
So, before I end, here are some kind proofs that come to my mind that we can show that we have lived:
How to leave behind kind proofs that you have lived?
Table of Contents
- Keep a journal and write about anything that comes to your mind. Write about your days, your feelings, your struggles, your achievements, your lessons or anything that makes you human. It is a record of your life lived.
P.S How to start journaling
- Keep a diary where you write down your favourite quotes, songs or lines that touched you. It shows who you were as a person.
- Write letters to your future self, your younger self. Write letters to your friends. Write letters to the Earth. Write letters you might never send, but write them anyway.
- Share your story somewhere. Maybe open a blog, a channel, or a newsletter.
- In our small random acts of kindness. (Here are 40 different ways to make someone feel happy or smile)
- In how we show up for our friends and loved ones, not only when they are struggling but also when they are winning.
- Books with your underlines and notes in the margins. When I see them in my father’s books, it reminds me: “Oh! This line touched him”
- Write poems, short stories, and songs that mean something to you.
- Share your recipes, your pressed flowers, or your embroidery—these become soft proofs of your existence.
- Write a prayer.
- Comment on a stranger’s post.
- Create something that can last long after you are gone.
- Grow a garden with love.
- Keep your vision board.
- Send Voice notes
- Decorate your home in a way that shows who you are.
- Take lots of pictures and videos of small, happy, ordinary moments of your life.
- Sew something for a loved one. Physical things made with love tend to outlast us and quietly carry our presence.
- Handmade gifts. They are proof that kindness has fingerprints.
- And lastly, through how you lived, how you loved and how you made people feel in your presence, because as Maya Angelou said,
“People will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did,
but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
P.S This was a part from my Mindful Monday Newsletter. To receive my newsletter directly to your inbox, subscribe below. It would be wonderful to have you ❤️
Journal Prompt of the Week
What traces of gentleness, courage, or quiet beauty do I want to plant into the world, and how?
Blog Post of the Week
Quote of the Week
One from Others
To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die
— Thomas Campbell
One from me
Help yourself help yourself.
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