What are the words that stick in your mind, long after you’ve read or heard them? What is it that makes them so poignant, so potent, so apt to pop in the forefront when least expected?

Funerals bring back little phrases mentioned about my loved ones. They also tumble different ideas in my head like dice in a cup. One example: my eldest uncle lamenting his utter hopelessness at musical endeavors. It might seem funny to be the subject at a funeral of my grandmother, but music was central to the person she was. Sometimes those gifts don’t pass to the kids, I suppose. Remind me of that when my daughter’s old enough to actually play an instrument, and not simply plucking the guitar pick out of my hand and into my mouth for giggles.

I write stories, novels, sometimes poetry, and – even rarer – lyrics. It’s not the first thing on my mind that I’m going to change someone’s life by the words I put to [digital] paper, that’d be pretty cool. How amazing would it be to have people quote me years from now? To be remembered after I’m no longer here? To have my work assigned in a class?

Yeah, I know. When I dream, I dream big. That’s not altogether a bad thing. It keeps me reaching for bigger and better things. Do you ever think about what drives you to do the things you do? Why is it that some things are simply what you do because you have to – like buying groceries or working for a boss you despise – and some things are what you do because you need to, in order to be the person you are? What if you never find that inner desire to do something, to be somebody, to make a difference?

Some people are fulfilled in small ways and others reach for larger ones. Does that make either one bad? No, it simply keeps us all from being the same. [Which, nobody asked me, but I think would be pretty boring.] Some of us can reach our goals and the rest of us will endlessly strive for something more.

The pursuit of happiness takes many of us outside our door in the morning and home again at night. Success isn’t what will bring happiness, and neither will money. At least, not for most of us.

Remember the dreams of children. Sure, they want to be rich and famous, but they also want all that as part of something they love to do. Must be why one third the populace has dreamed of being a singer at some point – because it’s fun.

I might be in the relentless pursuit of words that are worth remembering. It might also be true that I’m chasing down a feisty toddler who jumps off the furniture and generally has no fear. Keeps life interesting. Whatever the goal of the day, I hope to follow my heart and do my best to achieve it. I hope the same for you – and if we’re not here tomorrow, that we can be fondly remembered.