Excerpt from Daily Cures, Wisdom for Healthy Aging by Connie Mason Michaelis
Marian, my 87-year-old friend, gave me some much-needed wisdom recently! She handed me a piece of paper where she had written, “Tomorrow is a mystery. Yesterday is history. Today is a gift, that is why it is called the present!” Hopefully, we can learn that lesson early in life. Today is a present, for sure! It comes every 24 hours and is wrapped in a beautiful gift box. We get to unwrap it hour by hour to enjoy and relish the contents. The gift has multiple layers, and each one is a surprise that demands our full attention. Even on a bad day, we are better off focusing on the unfolding hour by hour. Why would we waste time thinking about things that happened 20 years ago? We either dwell on the sad memories of the past, or we long for days gone by as if they could be lived again. It is history!
Thinking about the future is essential when we are planning and preparing, but most of us spend more time thinking about what can go wrong! Worrying is like praying for what you don’t want to happen. Talk about a waste of time and energy. The future is a mystery. We do not get to see into the future, and the truth is we wouldn’t want to if we could. The Buddha said, “The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.” Today is a beautiful present, go ahead and unwrap it!
"Tomorrow is a mystery, yesterday is history. Today is a gift, that is why it is call the present"
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