With the recent death of my brother Michael, thoughts of mortality have been heavy in my mind. Between writing his obituary, performing his eulogy and all the thoughts and feelings that go along with those things, I feel the need to move forward, but perhaps use these past few weeks as a foundation for a few of my blog topics. 

At his funeral, the Priest said in his speech, “It is not the number of years you live, but how you live those years”.  That obviously struck a chord with me and probably most people at the funeral.

When you die, what will be left?  I’m not talking about materialistic things.  What kind of mark will you leave on this world?  What’s your legacy?  When people think of you or speak of you, what will they say about the years you lived?  Will they be kind to you?  Did anyone really know you, the real you, at all?  If you take a deep dive into your own life and examine “you”, will you be happy with what you see?  Are you living the life you want and making the impact on the world and others that you desire?  I know, I just wrote that whole paragraph in questions….

Seeing and meeting people who knew a different version of my brother or how he impacted them in their life was interesting. People I had never met were telling me stories about their experiences with my brother.  I only knew him as my brother-So, getting perspective from people from different stages in his life was interesting.  There was one common theme and that was that he loved people and he was better to them than he was to himself.  In many ways, he was better to them than they were to him.  Yet, that can be said for most people and relationships in this world.  Not all relationships are 50/50 and more often than not, as you examine your relationships as a whole, you will find you are better to most than they are to you.  It’s not a terrible thing, but it’s the truth.

What impact are you leaving on the world?  When it really matters, were you there for others?  People go through life as a list of checkpoints, not knowing why they are doing what they are doing and just checking milestones off the list for the sake of checking them.  Why?  Because they think they should.  Are you beating the “drum” in your life or are you going through the motions and following along?  In life, it is so much easier to just “do” instead of think.  

 I don’t have to tell you that time is precious and the importance of using it wisely.  We all know that.  My beautiful brother Michael was long winded and as my sister and I sat there before we closed his casket, I said to him “well, you finally ran out of words”.  I assure you, we had a good laugh after I said it. You only have so many words in this world and once you use them all up, you die.  Will you use them to accomplish nothing in this life or will you use them to inspire, motivate, change and influence yourself and others?  

If you are doing some self reflection and realizing that maybe you are needing to do more to leave your “mark” in this world, do this one thing…think like a kid.  No kid wants to be known for nothing and live a life unnoticed. Kids want to have things conquered.  Be famous.  Heroic. Have stories told about their adventures! Kids want to hit the game winning home run and have it talked about for years; adding distance to the ball each time it is told!  When you are a kid, you want to live forever.  Not survive, but LIVE!  Nobody wants to live to be 100 years old and their only mark on this world was that they stayed out of the way and was never an influence or a bother to anyone.  Kids demand attention to themselves and time from others.  Be Peter freakin’ Pan! 

 Live life like a kid.  Be curious, wide open and 100mph!