Friday, June 10, 2011

"The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation." ~Corrie Ten Boom

Also visit my Photography by DonnaKay blogspot @ http://photographybydonnakay.blogspot.com ... a little more about my life as I grow my photography business...

Oftentimes in life it's easy to get caught up in the things that really aren't important in an overall kind of way.  To get caught up in feeling discontent with our lives because of wanting something more or better than what we have...to feel somehow that we deserve so much more than life has afforded us.  And too often I believe we all have a tendency to measure our success by such unimportant things.  There is so much pressure to be at the top, to be the best, to beat out everyone else in whatever it is we are competing in that we lose sight that what really is important is all of those people we are coming in contact with along the way.  I love this quote by Corrie Ten Boom: "The measure of life, after all, is not its duration, but it's donation."

One of the many lessons I've learned well is that I cannot speak for nor can I answer for anyone else.  Only for myself.  So I look at the words of Corrie Ten Boom and how they must apply in my life, and I know that if I succeed at something - if I'm the best - if I win the competition...but it was at the expense of beating someone else down, or hurting them, or mistreating them in some way - then I haven't won at all.  I'm a strange kind of person sometimes because I seriously do think from how I will look back at my life when I'm at the end a lot when I'm making decisions or gaining perspective in a situation.  And it is so very important to me that my life have a legacy.  I've never had any interest in that legacy being "most beautiful woman" or "richest woman" or even "most successful photographer."  Rather I want it to be an everlasting, life-altering kind of legacy.  If my tombstone could read something like "She never gave up...she always tried...she did her best...she loved with all of her heart...she gave all she could give..." then I would consider my life the GREATEST of successes.

Have a GREAT day!!