Today

26 April 2021, 10:39 am
Speciality Bites by Paul Hargreaves

If the pandemic and lockdown have taught us anything it has been to slow down and reflect more. Even for those who haven’t been furloughed and have been working harder than ever, we have had our travel and nights out taken away from us, so may have had more time to ‘be’ rather than ‘do’. It is a Western disease that makes many of us think that value comes from doing and we sometimes forget to stop and remember who we are and certainly don’t enjoy the present moment as much as we could.

Very few of us have learned to really live in the present day. If you stop and sit in the garden, for example, as I did this weekend, what is it that is going around in your head? For many of us it is probably what we didn’t do yesterday, or what we did do and our regrets about it. More likely, it is what we need to do later that day or tomorrow. Very few of us are able simply to enjoy the present, which is a shame, as we would be better company, form better relationships and be happier if only we learned how to do this.

I discovered these words from Frederick Buechner this morning which put this better than I could:

“Today is a moment surrounded on all sides by darkness and oblivion. In the entire history of the universe, let alone in your own history, there has never been another just like it and there will never be another like it again. It is the point to which all your yesterdays have been leading since the hour of your birth. It is the point from which all your tomorrows will proceed until the hour of your death. If you were aware of how precious it is you could hardly live through it. Unless you are aware of how precious it is you can hardly be said to be living at all.

“All other days have either disappeared into the darkness and oblivion or not yet emerged from it.

“Today is the only day there is.”

There’s a thought to take into this week.

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