Motivational Leadership Speaker, Bestselling Oprah Author

I have lost four former colleagues in four months, ages 48, 49, 59 and 63.  I am shocked every time I am reminded how fragile life is, even though I first learned that lesson in 1992 when, one day, my mother was a healthy 66-year-old an the next, she was paralyzed for life by a stroke.

Every one of these friends lived shorter lives that were larger than most. Their passings were tragic, yet somewhat poetic because they touched so many other people and tried so hard to make the world a better place. All of them succeeded. All were real characters who I was very lucky to know.

I have so many conversations with people worried about the economy and their jobs and the future and this and that and…

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While I don’t minimize their worries — or my own – I have to wonder if we are wasting good life by obsessing about things we can’t control. We should be laughing more than worrying. Life is fragile. We aren’t here forever.