If she knew you, you were loved

I don’t think many of us are thinking about legacies right now. We’re thinking about what to do immediately for our families, towns, cities, countries and the world.

But truly, those thoughts and the actions they beget during a crisis like this are the best legacy we could hope for.

I saw a post this weekend that was both horribly sad and deeply inspiring. It was about a beloved preschool teacher who died from complications from COVID-19 in Missouri. Near the end, it said: “If you knew her, you loved her, and if she knew you, you were loved.”

We can’t fully control whether we are loved, but the second half of that homage – If she knew you, you were loved – stuck right in my heart. If she knew you, you were loved. What else can we be aiming for during this life, but that?

What else can we be aiming for during these strange and scary weeks when, if we are very lucky, we have been given a chance to better appreciate the people we take for granted, from our parents to our kids’ teachers to our supermarket clerks?

What else can we do, all those of us who have been smacked right across the face with a heightened understanding of what it means to be in a house, maybe to have a job,  to have phones and computers and internet, to see people we love on those screens. To show love.

Ms. Juanita, may you rest in peace, and in all the love you clearly gave and won.

I’m a writer in San José, Costa Rica, on a year-long quest to share daily posts on inspiring people, places and ideas from my adopted home as a kind of tonic during a rough time in the world. Sign up (top right of this page) to receive a little dose of inspiration every weekday in your mailbox; tell a friend; check out past posts; and please connect with me on Instagram or Facebook! If you want to learn more about how to support Costa Rica during the crisis, visit my COVID-19 section, updated regularly – or for ways to enjoy Costa Rica from afar, visit Virtual Costa Rica.