what do you have to offer?

Hello friend—you’re receiving this email as a part of morning reading, a daily reflection on the parts of life worth living for. If you have feedback, comments, or ideas, please email me at [email protected]. I know daily emails aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, so feel free to unsubscribe if it’s ever arduous. Thank you! - Zach

THE ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD

Hello friend,What do you have to offer the world?Every person in every situation brings something different, or, more accurately, could bring something different. Sometimes we bring competence. Strength. Skill. Expertise. We dazzle the competition with a swift flurry of something that, despite the cliches, could only be described as excellence.Other times we bring perspective. Something we’ve read, or even better, something we’ve lived. We offer those around us a viewpoint they don’t currently have, one they might very well need.Sometimes we can bring empathy. Care. The soft, enveloping blanket of giving-a-fuck, maybe in an obvious situation, but even more often when it’s unexpected. But where do these things come from? Is there some storehouse of all of them, off on some mountain range, that we can climb up and procure these things for others? I think not.In fact, each and every person brings the exact same thing to the table. It’s what you and I, mortals, have to offer the world. Because whether you paint, sing, write, dance, build, start, grow, draw, meander, laugh, slip, bite, bark, binge, or lead, the only thing you have to offer the world is the same thing everyone else has to offer the world: days well lived. The same 24 hours as everyone else, invested in ways that only make sense to you. So what do you bring to the table?The byproducts of a life well lived.