It is almost non-existence to walk in the woods with the cold breeze and cool weather in the place that I stay. It is like summer all year round here with the occasional thunderstorm during the monsoon season. It is one thing to perspire and fence-off mosquitoes in a hot jungle and quite another to take a casual stroll down an air-conditioned forest.

This is like one of the only two experiences I had walking in the forest with a cool climate, it felt like I was breathing for the first time. This was taken in Borghese Gardens in Rome. The air smells so fresh and wonderful that it changes you at the core of your being. The other experience I had was at the Tamborine Mountain in Gold Coast.

You might not be able to smell the fresh air in my photo but I was hoping to be able to bring you there visually through the rendition of my art. This is the best I could do. All these beautiful places are a legacy. It had been passed down through the ages because man had not yet decided to destroy it for his purpose and I wish that all these trees will stay on for a long time to come so that children of the future have a chance to breathe in what is meant to be breathe.

There is a saying that we are only loaning the planet from the children of tomorrow. Every one of us is just having a temporary existence in the world; we use the planet resources to support our experiences and inevitably, we will have to hand it over to the next generation.

Life is but a game, the only question is will you leave the world better than you found it or make it worse? It is said that at the rate we are destroying the planet, our children will not be able to even breathe fresh air in the next hundred years. Things take time to recover and if we don’t make a change now, we will be acting like cancer cells that will eventually destroy their own host and ultimately destroying itself in the process.

Different people have different capabilities. Some people are made to make a difference to humanity, some to the community while others contributes to the level of their own family. It doesn’t matter how much influence you have, your existence is bound to affect someone else. Whatever you do, you leave behind your legacy and this legacy, may it be for good or bad, ultimately gives meaning to your own existence.

There was a time when I was so full of myself that I didn’t even consider the possibilities that I can do something that is greater than myself or in spiritual terms, for the greater good. This myself, the ego, seemed to be so concerned on its own survival that it felt so disconnected from the world. It always felt like swimming in enemy territory where it sees everyone as a competition. In order to have more, someone else has to have less. It is a world where carnivores rule the planet. What changes me is the contemplation of legacy; I realized I had never really thought about it, what do I leave behind in the wake of my existence?

The birth of my child further reinforced the question. When I first saw his little hands and feet and the little fragile body that depended so much on my love for him, I realized the time have come for me to craft my legacy. It resulted in this blog that you now read. I might not be rich and do not have a lot of things I can hand down to him but I realized that what my life meant to him is more important than all the material things in the world.

This reminds me of a quote from Richard L. Evans, “Children will not remember you for the material things you provided but for the feeling that you cherished them.”

My wife recently said that it is in our nature to want to sacrifice for our child, even if it meant giving up our lives for him. I wasn’t sure if I agree to it just a few years back but now I understand that you live on through your children. Life is a continuum of the same flame although each flicker of the flame is new and different.

It is in my experience that I do not have very loving parents, the least I can do is to be one myself. A legacy has to continue to give value to who it may concern even though you are no longer around. This blog itself took 2 years to conceive and develop. Nobody believed in it other than my wife and me. It was a risk and a huge sacrifice I had to make to see its realization. I self-taught myself the art of photography so that I can record what I see in the world and to inspire my child to see how beautiful our planet is—a life worth living is a life worth capturing. I read countless books on the art of living just so that I can share all these nuggets of wisdom with my child, hoping that he might discover the true value of his life and what really matters.

A legacy feels like this—I do not know what I can get out from it and there can be no expectations, it is all about giving and through all that giving, I found myself in the process. It might not seemed like much but it is everything to me. My craft and my wisdom is the only priceless thing I can give. It is what drives me to wake up everyday so that I can live to the greatest potential each moment for something that truly mattered.

Remember that if your life is all about you, at the end, life will have no meaning for you. If you have a legacy as a driving force, you will be a meaning to countless others. Ultimately you will be known for what you leave or did not leave behind, make your precious life count for something and in that process discover yourself and the song you were meant to sing for the world.