晨读英语美文 What will Matter

What will Matter

[00:12.15]Ready or not,

[00:15.00]some day it will all come to an end.

[00:17.69]There will be no more sunrises,no days,

[00:20.28]no hours or minutes.

[00:22.68]All the things you collected,

[00:24.67]whether treasured or forgotten,will pass to someone else.

[00:28.60]Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.

[00:33.61]It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.

[00:36.89]Your grudges, resentments, frustrations

[00:39.67]and jealousies will finally disappear.

[00:41.74]So, too, your hopes,

[00:43.52]ambitions, plans and to-do lists will all expire.

[00:47.56]The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.

[00:52.12]It won't matter where you came from,

[00:54.58]or on what side of the tracks you lived.

[00:56.82]It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.

[01:00.54]Your gender, skin color,

[01:02.63]ethnicity will be irrelevant.

[01:05.71]So what will matter?

[01:06.93]How will the value of your days be measured?

[01:09.57]What will matter is not what you bought,

[01:12.00]but what you built; not what you got,

[01:14.41]but what you gave.

[01:15.83]What will matter is not your success,

[01:17.90]but your significance.

[01:19.41]What will matter is not what you learned,

[01:21.38]but what you taught.

[01:22.92]What will matter is every act of integrity,

[01:25.64]compassion, courage and sacrifice that enriched,

[01:29.07]empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.

[01:32.90]What will matter is not your competence,

[01:34.84]but your character.

[01:36.10]What will matter is not how many people you knew,

[01:38.89]but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.

[01:42.57]What will matter is not your memories,

[01:44.75]but memories of those who loved you.

[01:47.54]What will matter is how long you will be remembered,

[01:50.30]by whom and for what.

[01:52.30]Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident.

[01:56.68]It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice.

[02:00.31]Choose to live a life that matters.