(This is part of an ongoing series of highlights from past Listen to Life newsletters.  Many readers and subscribers were not following when this came out.  Enjoy.)

“I don’t know how long I have, but I want to make every day count.”  Everyone can say that, but the speaker was a primordial dwarf, interviewed for a television show about the disease.  His condition is marked by smaller body size in all stages of life beginning from before birth and lasting throughout the life span.  One woman featured was just over three feet tall and weighed 37 pounds at the age of 43.  Considering their life expectancy, the difficulty in managing a normal day in an adult-sized world, and all that it means, it is not surprising to see that one of the most important questions of the adult woman by a teen with the disease was, “Are you happy being so small?”

None of us know the time or the moment of our death, so making every day count is important anyway, though most people don’t take the notion seriously until they have a health setback (or someone near to them does), or they reach a certain age, or something significant happens to remind of them of their mortality. We miss out on living by waiting for the motivation or reminder to do so.  We miss out on the chance to be happy while waiting for conditions to “improve.”

These very small people provided a very large message about making the most each day and finding ways to be happy for the chance to be alive. What, and who, around you remind you to make each day count?  It has to be you.