Well, hello, my friends, and welcome to the Live Inspired podcast Monday morning moments with John O'Leary.

I record these so that you and I can begin our days and our weeks, in particular Thanksgiving

weeks in awe and on fire with a burst of inspiration. Let's get after it today. Spending several

decades as a hospice doctor, Dr. Ira Barak, learned much about the process of death.

Perhaps surprisingly, though, spending years among the dying taught him even more about living.

In their final days, his patients often reiterated what many of us know to be true.

That experiences matter more than things. That life is temporary and each moment is a gift. That we're not going to be true. That experiences matter more than things. That life is temporary and each moment is a gift.

That we should strive to contribute something bigger than ourselves to the world around us.

But for many of us, these platitudes become just part of the background white noise of life.

Maybe it's a quote card we scroll through on social media or seen the aisles of home goods. But for Bayak, these weren't just bumper stickers. These were the

words and the scenes played out not in the noise, but in the quiet. Witness and patient after

patient family after family and year after year. But here's the quiet. Witness and patient after patient, family after family and year after year.

But here's the good news, my friends.

This brings it back to you and me.

We do not have to wait until our final days are upon us,

or until we are at the bedside of someone we care about to live out these end-of-life lessons.

He distilled years of experience into four short but mighty statements that allow us to be

liberated from the burden of regret. Let me give them to you right now. Number one, I forgive you.

I forgive you. We've all been let down, discouraged, or wronged by others.

There are disagreements, spoken or unspoken. We have with those we care for the most that linger

for years and sometimes poison our most important connections. But I forgive you. Those words free us from caring a grudge that further damages a relationship and allows

the person we share it with to recognize that we accept them as they are.

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