Life is a Journey

Sometime people get so busy making a living, they forget to make a life.

We do not choose to be born.

We do not choose our parents,

Or our times or country of birth,

Or the circumstances of our upbringing.

We do not – most of us – choose to die

But within all this realm of choicelessness

We do choose how we shall live –

Courageously or in cowardice,

Honorably or dishonorably,

With purpose or adrift.

We decide what is important and what is trivial,

What makes us significant is what we do,

Or refuse to do.

We decide and we choose

And so we give definition to ourselves.

—Joseph Epstein

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so that when you die, you’re the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.