Carpe Diem.
Seize the day.
Seize the day on a Wednesday, you say? Are you shitting me?
Do you not understand that I have a headache, I didn’t sleep well last night, I have urgent matters awaiting me this morning, I think I’m getting a spring cold, my kids are being bullied at school, I haven’t exercised in months, my partner is golfing again, there isn’t a pastry that hasn’t involuntarily or accidently lodged itself in my mouth, and I am to seize the day?
Yes.
Breathe.
If you don’t seize the day, this very day, you will regret it again tomorrow, and be crippled by that same fear you had yesterday, and you’ll do it again, and again and again.
Remember that time is a human concept.
Exhibit A. The earth doesn’t fully cooperate with our concept of time and our 24-hour time standards. She burdens us with ‘spillage’. Those few unwanted and very scientifically frustrating extra rotations around the sun, turn our whole notion of time to shit. Those few magnificent rotations give us a marvelous leap year. February 29th is nothing but a reminder that time is but a human construct.
Exhibit B. If you live in a messy house and a terribly manicured yard, things seem hopeless. There isn’t enough time in the day to do anything, you tell yourself. But just put a for sale sign on your front lawn, and miraculously, the house gets clean. Worse, it stays clean. The impossible and the improbably hang around until it is finally sold, and we once begin the messy process of living in a new house once again.
We often fail to live because we tell ourselves many false stories, and one of them involves our concept of time.
We misunderstand time. We respond to something that doesn’t exist.
It takes a long time to get to this reality, but thankfully I am finally and consciously beginning to let go of my regret and I am beginning to stand up to my fears. In short, I am beginning to live life for the moment. Living it fully. Living it unexpectedly. Living it daily.
I embrace today. And only today.
Wednesday.
My best day yet. (Until tomorrow)
There is a danger here if we cannot live in the present. If we can’t embrace where we are, we will either live in the past, or hide our lives from the future.
Regret keeps our lives bound in the past. It anchors us around things that have long passed. Things that will never return. Things we cannot do anything about anymore. Regret keeps us distracted on shiny objects and keeps the meaning of our life out of focus. We need forgiveness. Without it, we will never move forward.
Fear is not much better than regret.
While regret pickpockets our time by drawing our attention to our past mistakes and failures, or exclaims out loud the many should have beens or could have beens. Fear stuns us with the possibility of failure. It shows us the unlived future. The imagined sneers and future unlived regret we might experience.
Might.
We don’t live today, because we might have regret tomorrow.
If we don’t live today, we sure as fuck going to have regret tomorrow.
This useless tit on a bull concept drives me crazy sometimes.
Regret covets and reminds us of all our buried dreams of yesterday and fear keeps us from ever reaching those dreams.
Like time, regret and fear are not real. They are nothing more than our own human construct.
Oh, the emotions are real. Where the emotions come from, is as false as our stories when we get pulled over for speeding.
Our feelings of fear and regret have a purpose. I don’t question the divine comedy that was created for us, and is playing itself out before our eyes. Certainly, there has to be a purpose for all this confusion. But, as difficult as it is to face our past or our future, it just as difficult to find the courage and live for today.
Wednesday.
Is it really, Wednesday? Depending on what calendar you follow, we might not even be certain if it’s the third or the fourth day of the week.
Does it really matter?
Does it matter if it’s raining or if it’s sunny? Does it matter if you have a cold or not? Does it matter if you are single or married? Does it matter if you have children or not? Does it matter if you are wealthy or unemployed? Black or white? Muslim or Christian? Gay or straight? Or if you tap you head three times, instead of four?
Does it matter?
Do we have the power to change Wednesday and the opportunities it brings?
No.
Wednesday is here. You are here too.
Today doesn’t care who you are.
It doesn’t care if you put a needle in your arm. It doesn’t care if you sell everything you own and give it away to the poor. It doesn’t care if you make love to your husband or wife this evening, or if you pick up a random, for a quick 15 minute ride in your rusty truck.
Today presents herself and asks you what plans you have.
She is here but she will not be kept waiting forever. She will eventually leave.
You will never see her again.
Tomorrow will come and you will meet her distant cousin, her sister, or her uncle Frank. He is a bit of a drinker and all hell breaks loose when he makes an appearance.
Don’t worry about tomorrow.
You still have time to embrace today.
Don’t you think it’s time we rid ourselves of our regret? Isn’t it time to fight our fears?
What is holding you back from embrace today?
Go out and be yourself. Go out and do something.
Go and live your life.
