Make your life matter

It always seems to fly by so fast.

However, the more important question – perhaps the most important question – to ask is, “What happened to life?”

Just like summer, life quickly races by.

From youth to young adult to career to parenting to empty nest. The days go slowly but the years whiz by like a runaway train hurtling through a junction.

Alas, at any time and for any reason, it can end.

It’s what happened to two cousins and a friend in the past 10 months – three people who died too soon but who did the most with their time on Earth, giving selflessly to others.

It makes you think about your own life and what matters. What really, really matters.

What matters is to do your best most of the time and on most days.

What matters is to do the right thing. Every time.

What matters is to have a good heart, because nothing brightens the world like a good heart.

What matters is to make your home, your neighborhood, your town a better place.

Did you smile at someone today?

Did you tell someone today that you miss them?

Did you hug – no, did you embrace – your children today?

Did you mentor someone today?

Did you praise someone today?

Did you give hope to someone today?

Did you help someone today?

Did you help someone today even if it’s not part of your job?

Were you kind to someone today? (Kindness doesn’t have to be random. Pick a cause and stay with it. Pick a family to help and stay with it. Sponsor a hungry child across the world. Buy a backpack and school supplies for an impoverished child. Volunteer at a soup kitchen. At the supermarket, pay the grocery bill for someone who is on food stamps.)

Call it calculated kindness but kindness nonetheless, which, along with family and faith, is all that will matter in our lifetimes.

If you can do some of these things on most days, it will be a fulfilling life. A rewarding life. One that betters the world and hopefully inspires others.

You will have mattered.