Who am I?

Those days where you're laying on the couch pondering who you really are?

Do you allow others to define who are?

You shouldn't.

You are the very best you. The one and only you. No one can take your place. And when you die, there will never be another you.

How will you leave your legacy?

When I think about the people closest to me who have passed away. I think about all the memories they have left me with.

My great grandmother, who made so many cherry cheesecakes for us, that I think her fingers were stained red from the cherry sauce. She would never take the first piece. She would wait for one of the great-grand kids to open the "ice box" and see her master piece. Our eyes would like up like a Christmas tree ... we'd carry the cheesecake to the table, trying to keep from salivating all over it. She'd get us plates and just smile so sweetly at us. She loved loving us. With every cheesecake, fried chicken, cookies or waldorf salad ... it was an expression of her deep love for us. She was the pinnacle of a giver. I miss her more than words can ever describe.

Of course my mother, she had a feisty side, but she also had this nurturing side that was second to none. I can remember walking into my bedroom, finding my sweet hamster not breathing. I screamed. My mom came running in "What?" I exclaimed "she's gone mom, oh my gosh". My mom would immediately sweep into action. She scooped up my hamster and made a dash for the heating pad. She would cradle her in the heating pad while giving her syringes of sugar water. If she wasn't breathing, she would literally bend over and breathe air from her mouth into the little creatures mouth. She would rub her lifeless body & pump her heart with her fingers. She could always bring them back to life. She'd say to me "Now Mandy, hold her in the heating pad and rub her head. Keep her awake".  We'd sit on her bed together ... side by side ... trying to save a little hamsters life. Even through my tears and worry ... my mom worked her magic. She was a life saver. I just wish some days --- her life was saved. Every time, I see a pet in distress I think "I wish mom was here...she could fix them up".

There's so many more people who have touched my life in a special way, that are no longer here today. Their legacies live on through our memories. They mold us into who we are and who we want to be.

I am the one and only me. I am supportive. I am loving. I am a giver. I am a nurturer. I am a child of God.