What Will Matter

Thoughts on 126 days of quarantine. 

Given the recent passing of people I knew for many years, I have been thinking about our own lives and the things that will matter in the end. Questions have entered my mind like, Where will we go? What are we going to leave behind? What are we going to take with us? What will truly matter? Etc. I came across a poem by Michael Josephson that describes exactly how I feel. 

What Will Matter – written by Michael Josephson

“Ready or not, some 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 what side of the tracks you lived on 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 is 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.”

And I would add to the poem, also with the people who matters! What a good reminder at a time when we are more and more becoming aware of how fragile and short our life is. 

Con amor,

Vero