Most Precious Gift

(excerpt from my published book Wake Up!)

If you are alive, whatever your origin, sex or age you share a gift with everyone whether you want to or not. It is invisible, has no sent, makes no noise and can’t be touched or tasted. It is the most precious gift we have and without it we would cease to be. We all have an equal amount no matter where we live, how much money we have or whether we are dependent or independent.

Neither a high I.Q. nor a high paying job grants us more of this gift than anyone else. It cannot be loaned, bought or stolen from another. We all have 1,440 minutes in each day we spend on this planet. How we choose to use these minutes is an individual decision. We are not born with a road map or a list of rules. Good or bad the decision is up to us. No one can make it for us.

It is interesting how many people with titles assume their time is much more valuable than those without. Adults often think their time is more important than a child’s simply because they are adults. Nationality, tradition and training have taught some men that their time is more valuable than a woman’s is. If the world ended right now none of us would have time left to worry about it.

Every moment of every day we all have the opportunity to help others by sharing a part of ourselves with everyone around us. If we realized time could run out right now maybe we would be kinder, smile more, say thank you, share a thought or help another. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to spend every moment celebrating that we have it instead of worrying about things we do not have and probably do not need anyway?

How we decide to use our allotted time is far more important than who our parents were or how many material things we feel we need to be happy. We can choose to be negative, bitter and hateful or positive, grateful and loving, taking all opportunities to extract the good from every experience.