Appreciating life.

Pär Lagerkvist wrote: “Sometime, you will be one of the people who lived long ago. The earth will remember you as it remembers the grass and the forests. As the soil remembers the decomposing leaves, and as the hills remember the winds. Your peace will be as infinite as the sea.”

The quickest route to appreciating life is to think of death. And then of all the beautiful and important things that are going to happen before that. Between now and our deathbed, what do we hope to accomplish and contribute? For whom do we want to make a difference, who do we want to love, to give of our time and commitment to?

Help me today to remember that my words and my presence are needed. Let my thoughts, my gaze and the story of my life make a difference. Make my laughter, my voice and my dreams important to someone beside myself. Help me to appreciate life.