Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas
If your absence doesn’t affect them, your presence never mattered. Unknown
Are we living, loving, and mattering? What do we mean when we ask, are we living? Are we living the life of our dreams? Do we even know what that would be? Do we have an answer for what our perfect day would be? Who would we spend it with, and what would we do?
Do we have people we love? Do they feel loved by us? Is there something that needs to change in some or all of our relationships? Do we love ourselves; are we happy with who we are, and who we are becoming?
Do we matter; do we treat ourselves as if we matter? Do other people treat us as if we matter? Do we treat other people as if they matter?
In Brendon Burchard’s book “High-Performance Habits” he asks us to choose three words to describe our future selves. The three he chose were live, love, and matter. What popped into my head was healthy, wealthy, and wise. One of his clients came up with alive, playful, and grateful.
Brendon Burchard was in a car accident at nineteen his three one-word commands live, love, and matter helped turn his life around. Every night he asked himself, “Did I live fully today? Did I love? Did I matter? He has kept asking himself those questions for over twenty years and they have guided him to a better life. He doesn’t always live up to his ideals, none of us do, but having clarity can help us determine are we doing something that matters, or are we just doing something?
If you only knew how much those little moments with you mattered to me. Unknown
Right now, the time I was spending illustrating my next children’s book in the evening is spent holding, admiring, and enjoying my grandson. The book will get illustrated in-between the time I spend with my grandson, (I still expect to meet my goal of publishing it on October 25, 2022) but my grandson is only little for a very short time. My daughter and I are watching movies in the evening as he feeds, needs changing, and fusses. We will treasure this time together for the rest of our lives. I am grateful I get to spend it with the two of them.
At the beginning of the year, I chose the word grateful as the lens through which to view life. There is so much to be grateful for and now being a grandma there is even more. Holding him is such a joy, the faces he makes, the sounds, how he looks around at everything, and how intently he stares back at me.
I think I will adopt Brendon Burchard’s three words live, love, and matter as questions to reflect on at the end of the day. If we live fully, love deeply, and matter by making a difference in people’s lives what a great life we will live. When we decide what we will pursue, we may find clarity, as we make the best choice of how to spend our time, because we only get to spend it once.
In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you. Unknown
The best things in life are free, and it is important to never lose sight of that. So look around you. Wherever you see friendship, loyalty, laughter, and love… there is your treasure. Neale Donald Walsch
If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of. Bruce Lee
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