Micro Legacies

A musing

I was in Sainsburys last week, and as I started to unload my basket, the cashier was talking to the woman in front.

“Are you having a good day so far?.”

She asked, beaming as she did.

It sounded genuine, so unlike the glib, scripted

“Have a nice day!”

we so often hear.

I considered how it would affect the recipient.

Being not only ‘seen’, but honoured with a brief invitation to pause and reflect.

Maybe the smile would calm or lift.

Maybe this would be the only spoken encounter this lady had that day.

Or…….

Maybe she would go forward and pass on the warm sentiment in her next interaction.

And it got me thinking about these small, seemingly trivial exchanges that each of us regularly partake in.

Every day……

• A ‘penny’ drops.

• A ‘seed’ is planted.

• The ‘right’ words resonate.

• A smile leaves lips and lands upon a hungry gaze.

The fact that these exchanges are fleeting and often with strangers we never see again, does not negate their value.

Like jets of water smoothing rocks, they hold immense power.

As we grow older, we think more and more about our ‘legacy’. What we will leave behind.

And some of us look at our achievements - or lack of them - and feel a tad disappointed.

What if we haven’t had a glittering career, climbed a mountain or written a book?

Or on a personal level…….

What if our relationships have all gone tits up?

What if rather than anchoring a family, we feel like its black sheep or pointless chocolate teapot?

We wonder how we will be remembered.

The imprint our humble footsteps made upon the ever-spinning earth. If we made a difference at all.

With this in mind, I started thinking about the concept of ‘micro legacies’.

The tiny things we habitually do that are not routinely identified, documented or celebrated.

• No-one is going to make a speech at your funeral about the time you chatted with a flustered stranger or the smiles you gave to a sad looking toddler in the shopping centre as his mother was glued to her phone.

• No-one will note in your obituary that you were the only person to remember someone’s birthday or their favourite colour.

• No-one will publicly recognise the seats you gave up on buses or the pushchairs you helped off trains.

But these things are legacies all the same.

They made a massive difference to that person at that time……and maybe beyond.

They are micro events that alone, appear insignificant but over a lifetime create lasting waves.

They are contributions to a beautiful humanity.

Strands of love that braid.

There will be words you said to people decades ago that still chime now. I still chuckle remembering funny things people said in 1989!

They’re not huge, fancy achievements.

But they matter.

All of these occurrences shape our lives and collectively, are every bit as important as the big stuff.

As humans, we are conditioned to only find value in the grand trophies of life. The labels we can collect. ‘Beloved mother’, ‘Straight A Student’, ‘Best-selling author’ or whatever. But these are not the only way we get to make a mark.

We micro influence and as such, have the privilege and responsibility of leaving behind thousands of micro legacies.

If only we could follow the lineage!

To observe……

• How an acorn idea we planted became a proud oak, both sheltering and rooting for others!

• How an encouraging word grew into green grass of self esteem.

• How a warm expression was daisy-chained all day long.

Whatever our fuck-ups, it’s never too late to micro influence and leave behind a myriad of micro legacies.

Not everyone gets to sculpt a grand vase but we can all mosaic.

If our life’s work is a sum of the parts, then there’s always time to start making the little pieces amount to something wonderful.

PS: Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed that post. I now have 400 pieces on my Substack! If this piece particularly chimed, I have a ‘buy me a coffee’ option as a one of token of appreciation instead of a paid subscription. Or leave a thoughtful comment or share. You can find more of my musings under the heading ‘musings’ on my home page.