Be The Light

We can change the future. We can do it by changing what we are doing now. The decision is ours to make; on an individual, local, communal, societal, global levels.

One of my favorite annual activities is reading The Lives They Lived issue of 纽约时报 from cover to cover. It's got some famous people in it but it also always includes regular people and how they lived their lives, what they did, their stories, what motivated them, and why they shaped their future in the way they wanted to. Of course, sometimes lives are cut tragically short.

"For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

Says so much in six short words.

So we all have a choice - to be remembered as a source of life, blessing, love, giving. A source of light that loses nothing by lighting another candle?

Or the alternative - a source of fear and dread and darkness. This seems to be the never-ending struggle humanity faces, in every generation.

The article can change. The choices we make decide that content, the context, and the legacy we leave.

What people say about you can change how you will be remembered can change

You can't change the past - changing the present is how you create, shape and change the future. Whether that will be for positive or negative, blessing or a curse...that's up to all of us, one day at a time.

Because sometimes we need to put everything in perspective. A pretty stark way to do that is thinking about a question we just do not have the answer to - How much longer will I live? When you have that in mind it puts what you're doing in the bigger picture, aligns your actions with your real purpose.

Time is our biggest asset, our most precious commodity; but we're always against an unknown clock so we need to make it all count. Make it count and make it meaningful.

Be the light that never goes out.

Secure the bag.