Ready or not, someday time as we know it will all come to an end.

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

All the things that I have collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will have passed to someone else.

My wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.

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

My grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will disappear.

So will my hopes, dreams, and ambitions, the plans to do all those lists will have expired.

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 tracks I lived on.

At the end it won't matter, whether I was beautiful or brilliant.

Even my gender and skin color will be totally immaterial.

So what will matter? How will the value of my days I spend?

How will I on earth be measured, what will truly have mattered?

Not what I bought, but what I gave. Not my success, but my significance.

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

What will matter are my acts of integrity, courage and compassion.

What sacrifice that enriched, what empowered or encouraged others.

What will matter is not competence, what will matter is character.

Not how many people I knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss.

What will matter are not my memories, but memories that live in those left behind.

 How long I will be remembered and by whom and for what deed?

Living a life that matters doesn't happen by chance nor by accident. It's not a matter of circumstance but a matter of personal choice.

Choose to live a life that matters.