“The greatness of a community
is most accurately measured
by the compassionate actions
of its members.”
~ Coretta Scott King

I have friends,… and I have family. Many members of my family are also my friends, and a good number of my friends are like family. The older I get, the more grateful I am for the gifts of these women and men in my life. Some of my friends are far better-off financially than I will ever be. The same can be said for a good number of my family members. This is not an issue for me. The most precious thing I have to share with my family and friends is my time — and we all get the same amount of time every day: 1,440 minutes, to be exact. Who said life isn’t fair?

Former Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor offered this piece of advice for living a good life: “Give freely of yourself always to your family, your friends, your community, and your country. The world will pay you back many times over.” Notice that Justice O’Connor did not say, “They will pay you back…” Rather, she said, “The world will pay you back…” So how, exactly, does this work?

There are a number of resources that tell us that our actions affect our later experiences. These are not guaranteed consequences. Whether we do something good or something bad, however, it seems that fate does have a way of leveling the playing field. This concept can be traced back to Biblical times.

In chapter three of Luke’s account of the Gospel story, we are told, “Give, and gifts will be given to you.” Saint Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, wrote, “A person will reap only what he sows.” Paul’s words are also reinforced by the popular idiom “What goes around comes around.” Some refer to this as karma — believing that the way we behave now will affect how we are treated in the future.

Even Helen Keller, who was deprived of the gift of sight, yet was gifted with incredible vision, wrote, “The unselfish effort to bring cheer to others will be the beginning of a happier life for ourselves.” Yet another example of the cause and effect theory of life.

So what does all this have to do with my family and friends? Well, in my younger years, I was so preoccupied with living my life, attending to my career, raising my family, and doing the things required of a responsible husband, father, and citizen, that I failed to truly appreciate the blessings of my family and friends. I took them all for granted. This is no longer the case.

At this point in my life, I am making a conscientious effort to reach out to family and friends, to nurture those relationships, to share myself (my time) with them, and to do whatever I can to help them when they are in need of assistance. What I do for my friends and family may not be life-changing, but they are still worth the effort. The Greek storyteller Aesop taught us that “no act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”

Much has been written about finding one’s purpose in life. I’ve always appreciated artist Pablo Picasso’s take on this. He wrote, “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” Picasso’s words are in line with those of author Charles Dickens, who wrote, “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of another.”

I’m grateful for my family and friends. And I’m grateful for the 1,440 minutes of life I get each day. It is a blessing to have the ability and opportunity to use some of that time to reach out to others, to show compassionate concern for them, or to simply be there for them when that is what they need. Do I expect anything in return? No. Not at all. Yet I’m confident that when I am the one in need of attention or compassion, it will be there for me.