I have more end-of-life questions than answers, but I am certain of one thing. Some people, like Lynn, live in ways that inspire those they leave behind to emulate them. Here are several ideas on how we can keep her spirit alive. There was only one Lynn, so pick your favorite few.

Fourteen ways to be more Lynn-like.

• Take your watch off on occasion and leave your phone behind. And don’t worry about being exactly on-time, instead be even more present to people.
• Consciously choose intimacy and commit especially deeply to one person.
• Jump in streams, lakes, or the sound, with or without clothes.
• Pay closer attention to plants by learning their names and caring for them.
• Never speak negatively of anyone, instead always give people the benefit of the doubt.
• Be proactively friendly. When you move somewhere new, if your neighbors don’t initiate for whatever reason, bake them something, walk over with it, and introduce yourself.
• Trust in kindness and resist the urge to keep score in relationships.
• Travel, learn new languages, and immerse yourself in other cultures.
• Eat a lot of fruit and leave a trail of apple cores wherever you go.
• Volunteer at a food bank, respect the homeless, and give generously to non-profits that care for the most vulnerable among us.
• Commit to a faith community.
• Dance.
• And if you want to embody the most Lynn-like attribute of all, make it this one. Be especially mindful of and friendly to the newcomer, the outsider, the immigrant, whomever is lonely.
• And lastly, somehow, despite touching so many people’s lives so profoundly, self-compassion illuded Lynn. She often felt she wasn’t nearly enough of a daughter, sister, wife, mother, educator, citizen. She lived with a nagging sensation that there was so much more that she could and should do. Somehow, she understood and forgave others’ shortcomings with more of a generosity of spirit than her own. I struggled to accept this and felt relatively powerless in helping her muster some semblance of self-compassion. Given that, one more especially poignant way we can honor her legacy is to pick up that baton and practice self-compassion. To learn together to accept that although we’re flawed, we’re enough. And with that assurance, to keep her memory alive by consciously and imperfectly being as Lynn-like as we can in whatever time we have left.

Blessed be the life of Lynn Byrnes.