Caught Thinking About the Future

I must apologize for my recent posts. They were honest moments of blogging, so no regrets in doing so, but nonetheless, I work a program of recovery and recovery tells us to live in the day. One of my favorite readings is as follows:

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

There are two days in every week about which we should not worry; two days which should be kept free from fear and apprehension.

One of these days is yesterday with its mistakes and cares, its faults and blunders, its aches and pains. All the money in the world cannot bring back yesterday. Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control. We cannot undo a single act we performed. We cannot erase a single word we said. Yesterday is gone.

The other day we should not worry about is tomorrow with its possible adversities, its burdens, its large promise or poor performance. Tomorrow is also beyond our immediate control.

Tomorrow's sun will rise, either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds ... but it will rise. Until it does, we have no stake in tomorrow, for it is yet unborn. This leaves only one day ... TODAY. Any person can fight the battles of just one day. It is only when you and I add the burdens of these two awful eternities - yesterday and tomorrow - that we break down.

It is not the experience of today that drives people mad - it is the remorse or bitterness of something which happened yesterday and the dread of what tomorrow may bring. Let us, therefore,

LIVE BUT ONE DAY AT A TIME.

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I have always loved that reading because it is so very true. We project what we think will happen in the future, yet it rarely turns out that exact way. We hold onto burdens if our past, yet those days are done and we can do nothing to change the past (only what we do today and each day in front of us matters).

A wise person once said to me when I told them I was worried about the possibility of these legal charges one day getting filed against me, "you can spend every day worrying and if they are never filed, you just wasted every day worrying or you can spend every day worrying and one day they do get filed and you STILL wasted every day worrying." He was absolutely right. Had I been sitting around, worrying for 5 years, I wouldn't be living where I do today. I wouldn't be back in school. I wouldn't have the ability to find joy even during moments of sadness. I would have just wasted away- worrying. 

Don't let yourself go there too often, now we all can't help it some of the time, but when your mind is there - lost in the paranoia of what's to come or the darkness of what was, remind yourself that if you are spending all your energy on the past or future, you are failing to live in today. You can battle the issues of just one day. The day will end at some point. You will close your eyes and be able to start afresh tomorrow. The past and future matter but it is what you do today that matters most of all!!