Living a life that Matters

This is quoted at the end of the film "The Beautiful Truth" about Dr. Max Gerson and Gerson Therapy.(Itunes.com) I've been attempting 90% raw food eating or at least natural food eating for almost one year now. I have lost weight, but more importantly on my 50th birthday physical exam my doctor told me I was 33 on paper. I wanna live. It's that simple. This poem pushes reset for me.
I post it for the possible good it may bring to those who take the time to read it. Josephson is a wonderful man involved heavily in the field of ethics. I don't know of him beyond the internet, but I love his choice of words here.

Jeff Mosier 3/26/09

What Will Matter

Author: Michael Josephson

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 what side of the tracks you lived on 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.

Return to Writing. Return to Life.

This a blog that I have had and not used in a long while. Things will start now again. As I have just turned 50 my mind is full of things that I need to get on paper in order to orient myself to the present in order to keep my mind and body moving forward. Sitting at a computer for hours is not the goal, but rather written expression in the service of human change. May this process bear fruit for my mind and peace for my emotions as I now embark upon ever bigger changes for my life, my art, my health and my relationships both family and community. As one of my song lyrics states.."life's about change and change is life, we say it all the time" which is easy to say but hard to remember in the heat of life conflicts. Until my dying day may I always strive to reach higher and further in my quest for a life lived at the fullest and most healthy level possible for me. May I begin to more completely see my life, my family, my art, my body and my world in a growing positive and constructive frame that will bring me emotional courage at levels high enough to face my fears with enough determination to never allow those fears any chance to rule the major fabric of my decision making process. May a renewed joy for life and celebration of all that has been given to me be the continual focus of my cognition as I move forward into a wonderful yet different phase of my life. May this attitude and thought bring my biological health into a renewed condition rendering me the fulfillment of my most heart felt desire which is to simply live a long, creative, and love filled life here on this planet. I love it here, though I have thought of leaving it several times. May the my gossip and disapproval of others take a back seat to a more hopeful desire to see all people realize their dreams in ways they never imagined. May I stop seeing those with whom I disagree with as my enemy. I don't want to go away from this life for some careless reason that I could have prevented through better health, through more complete rest or through the management of my energy and how I choose to spend it. May writing become more than mere expression, but rather may it become a real and wonderful creative way to save my own life day by day. I'm thankful today for words and for the possession of a brain that is already full of wonderful memories and ideas about my world and the people that I am lucky enough to love and know. Maybe if this helps me , it will help others. All we have is our health and our perspective about what life is presenting us in the moment. May writing take me there.