One Day At a Time

One day at a time!

Such a simple phrase. Such a simple concept. Yet, it is one that I think most of us struggle with on a daily basis. I started this blog in 2009, and haven't posted anything since May of that year. Looking back on what has happened in my life since then I realize that I am guilty of living 16, 425 days in the past (I'll let you do the math), or an infinite number of days into the future.

During that time, I was faced with, and had to come to grips with some very unpleasant things from my past. So I spent days and weeks reliving all those events. Trying to figure out why things happened the way they did, and what I could have done differently. I agonized over each and every decision I had made. I second and third and fourth guessed myself. I was miserable, maybe even as miserable as I was then.

Then we found out that my mom was terminally ill, and suddenly every day was filled with counting the days we had left - we thought it would be 2-3 months it turned out to be 9 DAYS! Nine days that we could have taken a day at a time and savored and enjoyed, but that were lost in thinking ahead and counting ahead, and getting things done NOW, so we can enjoy "the time we have left".

The last year has been about pulling myself back together...and in many ways learning to truly live life one day at a time. The thing about it is, for all my agonizing, worrying and second guessing - I couldn't and DIDN'T change one thing from my past - because it can't be done. None of us have the ability to go back in time and change what has already happened. Is the past a part of who we are? Absolutely! There is no way that the events of our past will not shape the person we will become. They will, but we can decide HOW we want them to impact our life. To paraphrase - will we use our past for good or for evil? Which brings me to my next question. Can we learn from our past? Absolutely! Part of determining HOW our past will impact our life, is to try and learn from those events, and not be caught in the cycle of repeating the same action and hoping for a different outcome.

However, living life one day at a time, isn't just about not obsessing over the past, it's also about not getting lost in the future. I don't know about the rest of you, but my Magic 8 Ball isn't always right...matter of fact it's mostly wrong. If my Magic 8 Ball were right I would be Mrs. Shaun Cassidy, living in Greece, be fabulously wealthy, and have 4 children and 2 Afghan Hounds! The thing is none of us can predict the future. We can look at past events, that we have hopefully learned from and guesstimate how things might turn out, but ultimately it is ONLY a guess. So we find ourselves so absorbed in looking down the road at what we - think, hope, fear, wonder, dream of, long for, or dread - that we miss what is right here in front of us.

In the Gospel of Matthew 6:24 we see this short but powerful statement, "So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today." As I have dealt with all the pain, sadness, heartaches, joys, happiness and blessings over the last, almost, 2 years I have tried to live my life one day at a time. To look at the past, not as something that can be changed, but as something I can learn from and that has made me the person I am. To look at the future, not as something to predict, but as an adventure that unfolds for me each and every hour. Do I succeed? Not every day - some days the past ambushes me, sometimes the future overwhelms me - but there are more days that I live just for the day it is. So let's try to all just take it one day at a time, and remember that each day, in it's own way, is a beautiful day!