Remind Me To Live A Life That Matters

 ...in an email that Brod Tito sent to his wife Viching, blind copied to some brods, on June 29, the week before he came home for the Medical Mission and Jubilee celebrations...

“Remind me to live a life that matters

Ready or not, someday my life will come to an end.

There will be no more sunrises, any seconds, minutes, hours or days.

All the things I collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass on to someone else.

Whatever wealth, fame or temporal power I have will shrivel to irrelevance.

It will not matter what I owed or what I was owed.

My grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear.

So, too, my 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 I came from, or what side of the track I lived, at the end.

It won’t matter whether I was beautiful, or brilliant, or cool.

Even my gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter?

How will the value of my days be measured?

What will matter is not what I bought, but what I built; not what I got, but what I gave.

What will matter is not my success, but my significance.

What will matter is not what I learned, but what I taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage, or sacrifice that enriched or empowered others to emulate my example.

What will matter is not my competence, but my character.

What will matter is not how many people I knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when I’m gone.

What will matter is how long I 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.

Please keep on reminding me to live a life that matters.”

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