“To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world.” Brandi Snyder

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It was a cold, rainy day—a day much like today—when I experienced great loss and grief for the first time.

I was just ten years old and on that rainy November day the single, most pivotal person in my life, died. My Nana.

I am often asked why she has had such an enduring impact on my life, and my reply is always the same, she just did.

I can still recall everything about her with the greatest of clarity. Like when I was young, she used to bathe me, and when I would stand up to get out of the tub, she would look at me and ask, “Jessie, how tall are you?”

Before I answered her, I would raise my hands up high over my head, extend my fingers as far as I could, pointing them up, up towards the ceiling, and standing on my tippy toes, stretching out about as far as my little body would reach, I would reply, “I’m so tall Nana.”

It was at that exact moment that she would reach into the tub, wrap me up in a towel, pull me close to her, and warm me up with her love.

To this day, although it has been twenty-eight years since her death, when my life gets tough, and there is something that I think I just cannot do, I hear my Nana asking me, “Jessie, how tall are you?” and I reply, “I’m so tall Nana.”

Instantly, I feel the warmth of her embrace, and though the context has changed, her impact on my life has not, and I am reminded that whatever it is, I can do it—I can accomplish anything.

It is not often that I share such candid memories, but I have today with the hope that you will recall someone that has shaped your life, as my Nana has mine and, if they are still alive, that you will take the time to tell them how much they mean to you.

If where you find them is alive in your memories, as I do, feel the force of their love for you, feel the undying belief they had in you and who you were becoming, who you would be one day.

Feel them wrap you up tight, warming you up with the absolute knowing that there is nothing that you cannot accomplish when you possess self-love. Never let anyone contaminate who you know yourself to be. You were born to do great things, and that is an innate knowing that cannot be taken away from you; it can only be given away.

Money comes and money goes. The pendulum of politics and the economy sways. Lover’s leave and divorces remain a reality. As you begin to realize that most of what we identify with is, in fact, transient, remember that self-love and self-belief cannot be taken away, nor can your memories, memories which speak to you, gently reminding you of your destiny.

Replay those memories often; listen closely to the ones which remind you that, deep down inside, you know who you are—and that you hold greatness within.

Remember, the next time the world asks you how tall you are—you are so tall.

That greatness not only resides within you—that greatness is you.
~

Author: Jessyka Cecilia

Image: Flickr

Editor: Lieselle Davidson