Make Your Life Count

"And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." - Abraham Lincoln

Profound words. Words I have heard before but oh so true. You know it is ever so easy to just have a crappy day. Or even worse, just live through a day without finding any joy in it. I would rather feel something, even if it is something bad than feel nothing at all.

It really is easy to find life in your years, your days, your hours, minutes. I am not as good at that as many people but I am so much better than I used to be. I try to find joy in “everything” I do. It is not easy but it is doable.

What I have been trying to do is take joy in what I am doing. No matter what that is. That sounds pretty insane to some people. Especially those who know me. I’m not the most tolerant of mundane jobs and my career is full of the mundane. That is just one way to put life into your years.

I have to ask myself a question, if I want to put more life into my years how can I do that? I think my answer is I need to help other people put more life into their years. I get so much juice from helping people see the joy in their own life it gives me joy.

Let me tell you about a kid at my White Oaks Secondary class. This kid is pretty quiet. I think he has learning challenges. He listens, tries to participate in conversation and generally is a nice guy. I think he has low self esteem though. I’ll bet you know the type of person I am referring to. He participates when we are in the greenhouse or doing practical work elsewhere but not much of a volunteer.

This week I asked for a couple of volunteers to clean and plant some clematis seed. This guy jumped right in. Now I was pretty pleased he wanted to help. But he was more interested in making sure he did the job right than I had expected. Clematis seed is tiny on a string of plant material (I think called a pappus but that matters not). He cleaned the seed very well and them followed my instructions and sowed that seed perfectly. Thank was last Tuesday.

Last Thursday I was in class again and because I get to class so much earlier than everyone else I went into the greenhouse to check on our seeds. Nothing going on yet as expected. About 1:15 pm, before class was to start in walked my guy and the first thing he did was go into the greenhouse to check on things. Now that is taking joy in your day.

I am not suggesting that we all need to find something passionate in to do every single day although that helps. I suppose what I am saying is take joy in every day. Some days you’ll just be weeding the garden and some days doing something more exciting. Leave your mark. And be a good role model. You can never tell the impact you’ll have on someone by showing them how to take joy in the small things.

Leave a legacy by having life in your years. I truly believe that is the best thing you can do. As Les Brown says, a legacy is what you leave in someone not what you leave for someone.