Milestones to Headstones

How do you mark the time of your life?  What is important as the years go by, and how do you see what is behind you?  How others see you doesn't matter as much as how you see yourself.  That's what counts the most.  We all have benchmarks that are personal to each of us, and no one else can share those moments.  Was your benchmark a memory of a certain age 16, 21, 35, 65, or was it what you were doing in a certain calendar year?  Was it marked by graduation, marriage, birth of a child, your baptism (if believe that way) a promotion at your job, retirement, death of a parent, the day JFK was shot, the moon landing, or something else?.  Do you remember where you were when you had the best meal of your life, or saw the most gorgeous sunrise ever, or the first rose you ever smelled, your first kiss, or when you had the first butterflies of love?  I have witnessed all of this and although I cannot touch those events, they have made me who I am.

I have been blessed throughout my life and I am lucky to be alive considering what I did as a young man, and I look forward to sharing wisdom gained for many years to come.  Looking back there are many benchmarks that meant so much to me at the time, but at this point in my life they mean less. Memories are by definition something in the past, but those memories guide each of us to our destination.  They have been our teachers, our barometers and the yardstick by which we measure ourselves.  Had I had the wisdom of today back then, I would have lived my life differently...I am sure that we all would agree.  But as I enter an age which has fewer sunrises than before, I ask myself what should be on my headstone?

Not sure I can answer that one, it is for others to decide.  Life is different now than before and my perceptions of myself have changed.  I no longer chase the dollar, the promotion, the ideal that we all grew up with as young adults that we HAD to be successful.  I am driven, but by other motives.  Let me mark my life by being someone who has given without expectation of any return.  Let me be someone who comforts in times of grief, and be an anchor to those confused.  And I pray that at my life's end I don't look back and say, "I wish I would have done more".

You see we live within a parentheses and are bound by a beginning and an end...no exceptions.  Puncuate your life with kindness, tears, smiles, firmness, truth, and above all, love for each other.  It's all that matters.