You never run out of life. You have it always in one form or another. You never get shortchanged. You have as much life as anyone else. Only, it's yours. It is not someone else's. It is yours.

And yet, at the same time that your life is yours to do with as you see fit and it is not someone else's, it doesn't quite belong to you either. Even if you lived in an igloo somewhere, your life affects another's, and theirs also affects you.

You affect the world. You affect your environment. Sometimes you think you don't have any say, yet you will grant that you affect the room you live in, won't you? You will grant that your mood affects the people who are near you. Will you grant you even affect the people who are far away?

One smile from you changes the whole configuration of the people who share a space with you. One frown does the same. One sweet voice. One rough voice. One change changes the whole scene that is played. And one ripple reaches another.

You are such a powerful player in the world. You thought you were immaterial or, at most, minor, very minor. Now I tell you in no uncertain terms that you are most significant. Only the significance of your role in the play of life is not always so visible. It is not always so immediate. And, sometimes, you just can't see. Sometimes you have been looking for proof that you are not necessary and that your life is not meaningful and you are just putting in time in an existence that doesn't really make sense anyway.

At the same time, you have spent a lot of your life striving to be important. Admit it. If you feel embarrassed to admit you have tried to make yourself important, it is because in your deepest heart, you know you already are.

You have great power, and you have great responsibility.

Humanity depends upon you. And I depend upon you. And the depth of your life depends on you. You are not a cog. You are mainstay. You are a vital organ in the universe.

And so a child grows. First the world revolves around him. He is all there is. Then he takes in more of the world, and he begins to understand that other hearts also beat, and he is not the only one who matters. And so he considers others, but primarily in terms of himself, pretty much like a little table tennis game. Somewhere in his development, he becomes like you and his sense of true self has diminished and he almost disappears, and becomes, feels like he has become, just another blur in the background, just another car on the road, just another space-taker, just another moving object, chugging along, getting nowhere really.

And now I tell you to take back your sense of importance, because you matter. You are integral.

Your importance doesn't depend upon how much it's noticed. Noticed or not, you are a mover of the universe. Your influence is great.

And now you cannot live for just yourself any longer. You cannot hide yourself from yourself. You cannot shirk your responsibility. You are a great influencer on the world of men. You have great jurisdiction. Your gavel is mighty.

Today, sweeten the world. Make nice. Make it jauntier for someone else. Hasten the evolution of the world. Make a new mark in it today. Pave the way for someone else. That is what you are doing anyway. Now be conscious of it.