Author Bessie Anderson Stanley once wrote that success was, in part, the ability to leave this world a better place – “whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition.”

Simply to know someone has breathed a little easier by way of our thoughts, our actions, our deeds – my darlings, this is what it means to have succeeded.

Though by any other ‘measure’ it might be missed. As, no amount of mantle trophies can bear witness to our truest legacy.

That is…

To embrace, to uplift, to ‘shine our light’; to offer courage against the dark of night; to praise, to cherish, to connect, to feel; to live with full heart, no matter the criticism; to find hope along an untraveled path; to explore the places others fear to tread; to find happiness within the robin’s trill, and inner peace inside a garden patch; to laugh often and love deeply; to ‘endure the betrayal of false friends’ and still see the goodness within all living beings;

My darlings this is what it means to have succeeded…to have lived.