One day it will all come to an end. There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days. All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else. Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed. Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear. So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire. The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away. It won't matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you lived, at the end. It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant. Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant. So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?
What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave. What will matter is not your success, but your significance. What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught. What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example. What will matter is not your competence, but your character. What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone. What will matter are not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you. What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what. Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident. It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.
very beautifully written Mirhan. In my heart and mind your kindness of making a phone call will always be remember as long as I live and my daughter lives.
So many kindnesses that Kousai provided me too.
I have attempted to live a life that matters consciously since I was in my 20s.
hopefull it truly has.
the 9 to 12 people who worked so hard, gave so much time, energy in October and November reached out to help.
almost 200 people reached out by sending money to help with costs of getting me released and home again.
almost 3800 people signed a state petition
and at least over 2000 (many probably were the same people) who sent Facebook messages to 1 of 2 Facebook Pages and emails directly
So many of them reached out thru individual, small group and entire congregational prayers, letters, phone calls, faxes to politicians, news media.
feeling significant is nice
feeling cared for,
appreciated is much better
at a time of possible terror and danger
they reached out.
here is an approximate visual graph of the reaching out
from family, friends, colleagues, clients, total strangers in that time period from UNKNOWN to Hooray He is Home Again.
like Kousai, you and I what we can do is reach out,
try, help whenever, wherever for whomever we can.
