WHAT WOULD you choose for your epitaph? “She took good care of others”? “He did his best”? In high school, your English teacher may have asked you to write a theme on this so you’d give some thought to the direction of your life.
In thinking about how you would sum up your life now, what if you discovered that you are living your life in a style set up primarily to prove to others that you deserve to have that epitaph? Many people seem to be focused on the results of what they are doing— to be good enough, or to achieve enough. Their anxiety about the outcome makes them miss out on enjoying the experience of who they are instead of who they think they should be.
Death comes to all of us, but the extent that we are our own person is measured by how much we have lived our own lives. With both life and death, the best way is your own way.
We are free to choose what sort of lives we’ll live.