"So, what are the words you want to live by?"

"So, what are the words you want to live by?"
 
Those words cut through the hustle and bustle of the Moss Inn. I still am not sure who actually said them, be that one of my new companions or just snippets caught from other conversations. It seemed like I wasn't the only person at my table to be affected by them though. In a beat, my mind had started racing. There were so many wonderful and poignant quotes that one could try to live by. I had read a vast number of them, certainly too many to count, and trying to focus on all of them at once was an impossible task. Everyone keeps on telling me to "make good choices". Those are reasonable words to live by, no?
 
Though saying that, all of those philosophers, heroes and village folks' words slip through my focus. My mind filled with my mother. I could feel myself smiling gently as everything snapped into perfect clarity. Both my mother and my father were my own heroes. In another world, in another life, there is no way I would have flourished how I have. All that I have become is because of them.
 
My mind jumped back to the first time I remember Ilyandra, my mother, saying the words that fit so perfectly. It had been when I had asked why having a small store in a sleepy town, whose main purpose was to repair and create things to make life easier meant so much to her. She had smiled at me and said "To do good for goodness sake." I wasn't sure how that could make someone so content at the time. It's been at least two decades from that moment now and I know exactly why they mean so much. The words are fine, contextually. They convey the message well enough.

When you actually stop and think about them though. You see the real meaning. All I want to do is leave places better than I found them. That is what has been around me while I was in my formative years, and through that time I have been on the receiving end of such kindness. Being able to use my skills to keep homes safe from weather or damage. Being able to actually protect the people around me. All of these things are good acts. But it's why you do them that counts.
 
Keep doing good, because you want to do good. Not because you feel like you should. Those feelings will be their own reward and keep you moving forward.
 
And who knows? Maybe leaving any place better than you found it, will make your own heart better each time as well. Those are good words to live by, I think.