WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND

What Will We Leave Behind?

This week, the world all as one, gasped and is saying goodbye to Dolly Parton.

And there is certainly plenty to celebrate: the songs, the movies, the unmistakable voice, the humor, the rhinestones, the businesswoman, the storyteller, the woman who could walk onto any stage in the world and somehow still make you feel like you were sitting on her front porch.

But perhaps the greatest thing Dolly Parton gave us wasn’t a song.

It was a lesson.

She showed us what to do with what we’ve been given.

Dolly grew up in poverty in the hills of East Tennessee. She knew what it meant to have very little. She also knew what it meant to dream.

And when she became successful, she didn’t simply build a bigger life for herself.

She kept building bigger possibilities for other people.

She created the Imagination Library because she understood that a book in the hands of a child can become a doorway into a world that child hasn’t even imagined yet. Today, that program sends millions of free books to young children. (Imagination Library⁠)

That’s what makes her story so compelling to me.

Dolly didn’t confuse success with significance.

She understood that significance happens when what we have becomes something that helps somebody else.

A song can make someone smile.

A joke can make someone’s day lighter.

A book can open a child’s imagination.

A scholarship can change a young person’s future.

A kind word can give someone enough courage to take the next step.

And sometimes, simply noticing somebody who feels invisible can remind them that they matter.

That’s the Caring Catalyst challenge Dolly leaves us:

What can I do with what I’ve been given?

You don’t have to be famous.

You don’t have to have millions of dollars.

You don’t have to write a song that the whole world sings.

You simply have to notice what is within your reach.

Maybe it’s a child who needs encouragement.

A neighbor who needs a little companionship.

A coworker who needs someone to believe in them.

A stranger who needs a smile.

Someone who needs to hear, “I’m glad you’re here.”

Dolly Parton’s life reminds us that we don’t have to light up the entire world.

We just need to leave a little more light wherever we happen to be.

And maybe that’s the best way to honor a life like hers.

Not simply by saying, “What a wonderful woman she was.”

But by asking:

“What wonderful thing can I do because she showed me how?”

That’s how a life becomes a legacy.

And that’s how kindness keeps singing long after the singer is gone.

Be the reason someone’s corner of the world is a little brighter today.

Yeah, what we LEAVE BEHIND, REMINDS of what can get keeping ON. . .

Now THAT is a song we can all write, sing and share
(All Verses)