It's Just Another Day

The last day of December, 2009. Not to panic, it's just another day. We could as easily begin a new year on June first as on January first. Today is the only day we have in our grasp; yesterday...gone, tomorrow...who knows?

I want to work with today. I think of yesterdays only in terms of sweet memories of good times, and challenges that helped me learn. I use those experiences to make the decisions of the day. And when it comes to tomorrow's impact on my life, I think only of how the actions of today will color the next day and the next. Even then, something may happen to interrupt my hopes or preparations for tomorrow.

Perhaps that's a bit too much philosophizing so soon after the holiday frenzy. Let me get my head into a simpler place.

When I was a young girl, my mom used to watch this soap opera (in black and white) called, The Days of Our Lives. During the introduction they had this big hour glass with sand pouring from the top cylinder into the bottom. The deep voiced announcer would say..."As sand through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives." For some reason, it scared the beejeebees out of me. As I'd watch those grains of sand racing through the narrow neck of the hour glass and landing in a lifeless heap in the bottom, I'd think, Man, those days are going fast. I'm gonna wake up tomorrow and be fifty! I'd run outside, find my friends, and play a game of hide and seek or kick the can. I could handle the here and now of laughter and sweaty faces.

Well, now I am...older, but age didn't come in a flash. My life has been built one day at a time; one precious day, just like today--the last day of 2009. It's just another day. And if any day begins to look like a little grain of falling sand, I simply run outside, find my friends, and play a game of exercising, shopping, eating lunch, or going to a movie. I can handle the here and now of laughter and beaming faces. You're welcome to come and join me, anytime!