What will matter in 10 years time?

As I'll soon be leaving my job (after 27 years!), I've spent some time this week clearing out old emails from my inbox and sent items folder at work. I've clearly not been great at housekeeping, as there were well over 10,000 emails in each folder, including some that date back over 10 years.

A couple of things struck me. A lot of the priorities, challenges and issues I worried about two, five or ten years ago don't seem nearly so big now, with the passage of time. Few of the emails I sent (or received) actually counted for much in the grand scheme of things. How many hours must I have spent writing and acting on them?! Yet I was now able to delete most of them without a second thought.

Among the many work messages were a few personal ones. And among those were some that warmed my heart: messages of thanks from people who I'd helped in little ways; kind words of appreciation from friends and acquaintances who'd felt encouraged, supported, on inspired by some writing or a quotation I'd shared, or a workshop I'd helped to facilitate. These are the messages I want to keep. They're reminders that acts of kindness, however small, can make a difference... And that it's these acts of kindness and sharing which retain their value with the passage of time.

Let there be more of these small acts of kindness and sharing; attending to the 'promptings of love and truth in our hearts'. And let me be faithful in expressing my gratitude for the many blessings which people bring to my life.