Making ripples…

My father, Rubin Salmansohn, passed away 4 years ago, in the month of August. On the day he passed, my mother found a post-marked envelope in my dad’s bedroom bureau drawer  - the date of which revealed that this was something I had mailed to my dad when I was still in college.

Inside this envelope were a few pages torn from a book – who’s name I no longer remembered.

My father had chosen to save this book’s clippings for so many years, that I became instantly highly curious to read what he’d saved.

After reading it, well, I gotta say, its message seemed rather magically synchronicitous – to read this mysterious book clipping on the very day of my father’s passing. Its message was an invaluable one for dealing with the passing of someone close. Plus it was a rousing reminder for how we should live our lives daily. I loved this clipping so much, I read it at my dad’s eulogy.

Ever since, I keep sharing this clipping  - in honor of my father’s memory – and because I love the clipping’s message so very much.

THE BOOK’S CLIPPING I SENT MY FATHER WHEN I WAS IN COLLEGE:

“Everything that is not given, is lost.”

Read those words again – and really take them in.

“Everything that is not given is lost.”

This is a potent wake-up call.

Because we are mortal, every talent, skill, ability we possess, every thought and feeling we ever have, every beautiful sight we ever see, every material possession we own, will ultimately be lost.

UNLESS WE SHARE IT.

Unless we give what we have to others – to our spouse, our children, our friends, our neighbors – to the strangers we encounter on our path – what we know and value will be irrevocably and utterly gone.

BUT…

If we give freely of our minds, hearts, spirits – who we are – then what matters most to us will never die – but will live forever in the psyches of not only all those who know us – but everyone who encounters them – and then everyone who encounters those who knew them – in an infinite regression of mysteriously unseen effect.

That’s why the metaphor of a pebble in a pond is so potent.

We toss the pebble of our soul into the pond of life and ripples are created.

If we hoard ourselves – our gifts, our talents, our love, our thoughts, our feelings, our insights, our words – we will make a very little splash and the ripples will soon end.

But if we give fully, with abandon and abundance, the ripples go out infinitely, overlapping and intermingling with other souls.

Viewed this way…what kind of ripple do you want to be?

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If you’re having a difficult time feeling happy due to the passing of someone close to you, or a challenging time you’re dealing with, I personally empathise greatly. I have endured a few personal life challenges – or what I call “Vortexes.” After a sexual assault a few years ago I became inspired to research everything I could about resiliency psychology techniques and put it all into a book called THE BOUNCE BACK BOOK. While writing this book, my father passed away – and so I included some information on dealing with this loss as well. The book was a heartfelt passion project of mine – and I’m honored it’s been praised by Tony Robbins, Gretchen Rubin, Tim Ferriss, Peter Guber.  You can read more about THE BOUNCE BACK BOOK by clicking right HERE right NOW.