A New York cab driver was dispatched to a very mundane pickup, taking someone across town. But what he found was a woman in her 90s, leaving her home for the last time and headed to a hospice. She was alone, having no family left.

Once the cabbie understood the situation, he quietly shut off the meter and drove her past the places of her life: the building where she worked as an elevator operator, where she and her husband had lived as newlyweds, a building that used to be a dance hall.

Finally she said she was tired, and the driver took her to the hospice, where he politely refused payment. Afterward, he decided that this was the most important thing he had done in his life.

* * * * *

The moments that matter most to us are very often unexpected. So, before you walk back into the mundane, decide that you’ll stay primed for an opportunity to build meaning into your life, and to help those who need it. The fact is, or course, is that all of us need help at times. And so we must help others, if only to earn the help that we’ll need along the way.