When I heard this story for the first time, I became very thoughtful and it changed my life.

I love success. Who likes to be on the losing side?

I like a full bank account. Who always likes having to do strict math?

And yet, there is something that is more important.

Here is the story:

Imagine you're in the car at night. You're driving alone through an area you don't know yet. It's raining, or rather, it's storming. A storm. It will be a while before you reach your destination.

Well, you're not the person driving. I'm telling it now as if it was my story.

~ ~ ~

Shit weather, sometimes you can hardly see the road, it's pouring.

Not a soul for miles around, a lonely area . And then what nobody wants to happen happens: the engine goes on strike and I just manage to roll to a reasonably safe spot at the side of the road after a bend. Shit! And now?

I am not the technician who might be able to solve this problem. It doesn't seem to be the fuel, the fuel gauge still shows enough. Which rescue service can I call? ADAC or something like that? Shit to the power of 2 - of course there's no reception in this area or in this weather.

So I wait to see if another car comes along. After an hour, I get more and more impatient. It's also getting colder and colder, I can't leave the machine running all the time to heat up.

What to do? Wait until dawn? I dread it. It's raining heavily and yet I get the urge to get out. You can't see anything through the windows - maybe when I get out? Or is it the hope that a car will come then?

I dare to go out - it's still pouring. But I have to do something. Nothing to be seen far and wide. No house ... no sign ... or is there? What's that back there, something up the hill? Is that perhaps a light? A house? Hard to make out. What alternative do I have? If it's a house, maybe they have a real phone and I can call for help. Or maybe just wait in the dry?

No cars have come past here for hours. There probably won't be one just now, when I'm moving in the direction of this possible light.

OK, long pondering doesn't help, let's head towards the possible light. Quickly across the road and somehow into nature towards the light.

As soon as I cross the road, I bump into a fence. A house after all? It can't really be that this fence belongs to the house, as the light is still so far away. If it is a house at all. So what is this place?

I walk along the fence and come to a gate that even opens a little. I don't really want to go in there, but the light is right in that direction. So I go in and walk towards the light.

Everything is so dark, so gloomy, I can't see my hand in front of my eyes and I stumble. Over something big and hard. I can't really make out what it is. Phone - there's a flashlight app. I take out my smartphone and try to find the app in the dark. And when I succeed, I see ... a gravestone. It must be a gravestone, because it looks exactly like a cemetery. Oh God, that too.

I shine a light on the stone to read what it says.

A name and a number. Name and 4 years. After a moment's thought, I stumble on. I want to know if the light is a house or back to the car. And I stumble over more gravestones. Creepy. Always a name and a number. Sometimes 2 years, sometimes 3½, sometimes 4. Oh God, I've landed in a children's cemetery.

This only makes my evening even more uncomfortable. I want to move on all the faster. I reach the other side, another fence, but fortunately also a gate. I push through and continue towards the light. The light isn't moving. So hurry. The chances increase. And the closer I get, the more likely it is to be a house.

I try to shake off the creepy cemetery feeling.

Just keep going. And the closer I get to the house, the clearer it becomes: Thank God! - a house.

I finally reach it. I ring the bell and luckily I hear footsteps. The door opens and I am so grateful.

Excuse me, I say, I've broken down with my car. I waited for an hour, but no other car came by and my phone had no reception. It was so unpleasant that I set off to find help. When I saw your light, nothing, not even the children's cemetery, stopped me from coming here to ask you for help:

May I, can I make a phone call to you? - Yes, I can make a phone call. But what do you mean by children's cemetery? Well, there's a children's cemetery here in this direct line, and I pointed in the direction I came from. - Aha, yes, there is a cemetery there, but not a children's cemetery.

Yes, yes, I said, there were only a few years of life on each gravestone.

Ah, now I see what you mean, said the landlord, no, this is not a children's cemetery. We just have a custom here not to write the date of birth and death on the gravestone, but the number of happy years lived.

And then I felt quite uncomfortable. I immediately thought, but they had a few happy years ... and then ... what number would be on my gravestone?

I almost forgot to follow the landlord into the house. Suddenly I realized - what has been so important to me in life so far hardly matters if the number on my gravestone remains small.

And so, once I was back at home, I took the time to review my life, reorganize it and set my priorities differently.

~ ~ ~And what does it do to you when you think about what your number would be for this cemetery?

So many people think about whether there is life after death.

How about living a full happy life here in this life first!

Sincerely

Wolfgang
winning for life