Quiet Lasting Legacies

I have had a challenging few weeks where my health has prevented me from doing things that I had planned, that I enjoy, my work and my volunteer commitments.  It has been difficult to cancel and reschedule over and over again.   I am so appreciative of everyone that has helped me to do this.  One of the things that I had to miss was the funeral of a mentor and friend.  Ross was my 4-H leader when I was 12 until I was 18 and stayed in and out of my life for my adult years as he and I would cross paths.  Ross was always interested in what I was doing, how my family was, where I was at in my life.  As a leader in our small community Ross was not a person you would find at the front of the room, not with a microphone in his hand or taking charge of everything.  His leadership was the quiet kind, the kind that held space for whoever he was talking to, the kind that encouraged and took an interest in young people and adults all the same.  I have reflected plenty in recent days about how he never treated us like we were know-it-all teenagers or any less than the adults in the room.  He listened to what we had to say, heard our problems or our solutions which he had probably heard a dozen times over given his long tenure as a leader.  He was patient and smiled and kept on leading in his way.  I can remember being completely wrong in my farm safety quiz about something, and he simply held my gaze in a quizzical manner and asked – are you sure that’s the answer?   In these last few decades as I have met him at different community functions I gravitated again to his special orbit, his quiet listening, full attention, real interest in what I was doing and who I was.  Yes, over the years I know he received a few honours for his commitment to his community and his volunteering, but he never walked his path like a decorated hero.  Just a person, interested in people, leading the way for so many of us to have the time and space to figure out what kind of person we were going to be.  His leadership was unassuming and came from the back of the room usually, however, he had a huge impact on so many in his community.  When you get some time to reflect, I think we can all think of these mentors on our path, the ones that modelled a presence on the earth that had a quiet, lasting legacy and we are all the better for it.