Live A Life That Matters

Spencer and I are embarking on a trip of a lifetime. We’d started this adventure earlier in the year, meeting with the two charities, Alzheimer Society of B.C. and the Down Syndrome Research Foundation to plan the Pink Pearl fund raising dinner event, group hikes with Kilimanjaro alumni’s, on various local hiking trails, purchasing the right equipment and visiting the travel clinic to ensure we’ve got all the proper vaccinations and medications for Tanzania, etc.

This Kili Challenge is much more than meets the eye. It’s a physical challenge, a mental challenge and a spiritual challenge but, most important, it is a tribute to Lana who passed away February 1^st, 2015. Amongst all the hustle and bustle surrounding the Kili Challenge and planning for the fund raising dinner, the passing away of a friend due to cancer just last week, August 30^th, was another reminder to seize the moment and to take stock of one’s life and to move forward with intention rather than have life drive you.

I am reminded of a short article by an unknown author titled “Live A Life That Matters “. It reads as follows (and, for those who are not into reading we have a video for you below.)

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.

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

All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will

pass to someone else.

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

It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.

Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear.

So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire.

The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.

It won't matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks

you lived, at the end.

It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.

Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what

you got, but what you gave.

What will matter is not your success, but your significance.

What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or

sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate

your example.

What will matter is not your competence, but your character.

What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will

feel a lasting loss when you're gone.

What will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in

those who loved you.

What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident. It's not a

matter of circumstance but of choice.

Choose to live a life that matters.

-- Author Unknown--

As Spencer and I, Salim and his daughter Safiya, begin the climb on Sep 10^th, I will think on these things and, hopefully, you will think along with me.

Bill D. (The Blind Guy who thinks he can climb Kilimanjaro)