The Shadow You Cast

You leave a mark.

I’m going to tell you after my mom passed, I live in the same city that they lived in, on my way back from my day at work, it was the first full day I went to work after we had buried mom, and I went to my parents’ house, and my dad was there because my dad had always been.

He’s watching 6 o’clock news, 7 o’clock news, whatever it was, he’s in his chair watching TV.

There was a chair over there, which was my mom’s chair.

It was empty.

I knew mom wasn’t there, of course.

The house felt barren, absolutely empty.

This was a five-foot-tall Italian lady, and without that five-foot-tall Italian lady in this house, the house seemed empty, absolutely empty.

As I say to many people and I’ll say to you, you have no idea how big of a shadow you cast on the Earth.

You have no idea how important, just your smile, you’re showing up, you raising your hand, you saying, hey, how are you doing to someone, may make their day.