“The past, the present, the future are really only one; they are today.” (Harriet Beecher Stowe), as seen at the Jack’s Winning Words blog.
Harriet’s little quote is good advice to take to heart. It does no real good to spend time reliving the past or worrying about the future. We can’t change or control either one, so that is wasted time and energy. What we can do is focus upon today. We can enjoy today, we can react to today’s events we can live within today.
We might spend some time planning for something that we’d like to do in the future – tomorrow or beyond – because many things require advanced reservations, commitments or plans; however, until we get to that time we cannot really live it or react and respond to the things that might happen. We might waste a lot of today if we get too fixated on the future, so it would be better for us to live within today.
I am certainly guilty of sometimes spending too much time worrying about what might happen tomorrow. I tend to play out all of the worst-case scenarios in my mind and try to anticipate how I might react to them. What a waste! None of those imagined things ever seems to happen. In fact, the only place where there is usually any drama at all is in my mind. Do you ever do that? Wouldn’t it better for both of us if we could learn to live within today.
As I get older there is also a tendency to re-live the past, especially as more and more of my relatives or friends and acquaintances are now referred to in the past tense. We use the term reminiscing and that sounds pleasant, but it too is really just a waste of time, albeit a waste that can bring a smile to my face from time to time. Still, other than filling an idle moment, more important and fulfilling than reminiscing is to live within today.
So, don’t spend time re-living the past or worrying about the future. Here are way too many things going on around you a the time, people to meet and places to go, to be traveling backward or forward in time. Today; right now; this is the most important thing you have to do – live within today.
Have a great weekend – it’s all around you. Live within today.
NormsMilfordBlog 