The saying I recall hearing before I could speak it myself “Leave it better then you found it!” often referring to spaces, how adults taught us to show gratitude and respect when given things or places to have such access and privilege to.

I have lived my life with that saying still being an echoing thought, it has expanded beyond places, beyond things, it now lives in people.

The concept of leaving it better than you found it translates beautifully to me. Life has its ways of putting us in and out of alignment with others, timelines are everything to me and while life can take pieces away what you gave me will always remain mine, I carry it with me like my left ear. I have left people and they have left me in the physical, but threads remain, some for better some for worse, sometimes we leave ourselves in ruin, sometimes we leave to wrap ourselves in the most loving embrace, every time we are left to have a reaction or a redirection. -Mitra Matin