Country Life Farms

One day you'll understand that not everyone is replaceable...

Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said..
A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made..
Or a garden planted..
Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die,
and when people look at that tree
or that flower you planted, you're there..

It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something
from the way it was before you touched it
into something that's like you
after you take your hands away..
The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said..
The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all..
the gardener will be there a lifetime..

"For the unfamiliar roads we have passed,
The strangers we have helped,
The anxieties we have overcome,
And the promises we have kept.

For the regrets,
For the loves we lost,
For the fears we met,
For the memories that ache,
And the hope that remains.

For the joy that we celebrate,
And the sadness we hide.
For the love and happiness
And the wild pursuit of our dreams.

May we all become stronger,
And prouder and better,
And genuinely grateful.

For there is much more to come."