My maternal grandmother died at age fifty, before I was born. Because the life expectancy of her generation was three decades less than it is now, those extra thirty years tacked onto my life are a gift.

The big question is - how  I can I put those bonus years to the best use? For instance - should I be mining for ever deeper meaning, or making even greater contributions to the community? In this season, when we all take stock of the past year, as well as plan for the new year - New Year's resolutions, etc. -  I am thinking about composing my life in a much broader way. Perhaps, beginning with what I still want to accomplish over the next two decades, and then work back from there.

Emerson said, "To know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded."  About this I'm sure, before I'm done, I want to know that I've made a positive difference in many lives; and that the one life I have, has been spent doing what I came into this world to do.