Ground Hog Day

Have you seen this popular Bill Murray movie? He wakes up every morning and lives the day over and over? The EXACT same day. What he doesn't get right one day, he can relive and redo the very next day.

We all have days gone by that we WISH with all our might we could do over again. Maybe not the entire day, but moments in the day. We have had days when we don't do our best and things fall apart around us. We've also all had days when we DO our best and things still fall apart around us. There is a reason for this...we can't control everything. In fact, we can control literally nothing outside of ourselves in the moment we are in.

It was a hot afternoon last summer when I was in a small circle of women listening to a woman counselor speak to us about what we can control in life. I had a bit of an epiphany that day. She asked us what we could control and many of us thought we could at least control what lay ahead of us. But, as she began to talk to us, I came to see that we can't really control anything other than this second of our lives. We all realize we can't change the past as it is beyond our reach.  Additionally,  we have no idea what is ahead of us in the future. We can PLAN for our futures, but as Robert Burns' poems states, “The best laid schemes o' mice an' men oft go awry,” we can't control them. Oh how I wish we could! We can affect some moments of the future. Lord knows we shouldn't stop preparing for the future. However, I am here to tell you, you CANNOT control it.

Living in the now and being fully present is sometimes difficult. We have to remind ourselves all the time that this is the only real second we have right this very....now. As morbid as it may seem, we could...any of us...at any moment...drop dead. I mean, we hear about instances like this all the time.

This is confirmation that we should take our lives right now and live them well. Analyze your life right now. Are you fully engaged and living it? Are you enjoying the point you have reached in age, maturity, knowledge, wisdom, family, friends, work, body management? If not, PLAN to change some things in your life...but do so by STARTING NOW. There is no LATER. Make one step forward this minute.

It is healthy and smart to look to the future with an optimism and a hope. It is perfectly sound to do so. It would not be intelligent to not plan where you want to go in life and what you would like to possess and achieve. But, my dear one, do not miss the NOW.




Take good care today.