Latin poet Horace wrote "carpe diem." Jonathan Larson, in the musical Rent, wrote "no day but today!" And then there is that quote from Alice Morse Earle that makes it in all of the greeting cards: "Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it is called the present."
It may not be as catchy as those quotes, but I like the quote from Buddha. Easier said than done, I'm afraid. For the past week or two I have consumed by my school work. I did school work, went to work, ate, and slept. That was about it. I felt terrible, but I also felt like I had to keep working. I was terribly afraid of getting behind. I was so consumed with what might go wrong in the future that I had completely lost sight of the present moment. I wasn't living wisely or earnestly. I was just working because I didn't want to have that hanging over my head the next day. But when the next day came, there was more work to be done.
Life lived for tomorrow will always be just a day away from being realized. -- Leo Buscaglia
I just found that quote and I feel it summarizes my last week or two. And the irony is, I was never behind in my work. I am actually almost never behind in my work, but I am always afraid I will be (which goes back to my post on fear).
Over the weekend, my husband reminded me of something he read in a book by Doug Fields: Doug breaks his day into three parts - morning, afternoon, and evening - and will not work for more than two parts of a day. I like that. I have work to do, and I want to do it. I like my job at the library and am enjoying school. But I don't want to become consumed by them and always be a day away from realizing my life. I want to live wisely and earnestly and appreciate the many blessings I have been given. And so, I borrow words from the great Jane Austen and ask:
Teach us...that we may feel the importance of every day, and every hour, as it passes.
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