What Matters

For each of us eventually, whether we're ready or not, some day it will come to an end. There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, or 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 owed. Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies, will finally disappear. So to 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 that you lived at the end. It won't matter if you're 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. That 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 competance, 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 is not your memories, but the memories that live in those that loved you.

A life lived that matters is not of circumstance, but of choice.

I did not write this. It's part of a documentary I just watched. The last couple minutes was this monologue. To be honest, it really had nothing to do with the documentary itself, but the words were meaningful, and true, so I wrote it all down. :o)