I had the most fun walk-and-chat this morning along the River Thames in London. My sweet cousin and I shared words over coffee for about an hour and somewhere in there the advice to “personify today” came out of me? And she asked me if I made that up or if I read it somewhere and I told her that I made it up on the spot, unsure if that was a good or bad thing. She loved it, and that inspired me to write about it. So here it is. I’m taking my own advice today and have taken a break from a Harry Potter movie marathon to eat homemade banana bread and write about a gift from Today. Let’s do it.
Isn’t it insulting to Today that it is never good enough? ...
...That tomorrow will be better than today but it really won’t be, because by tomorrow, it will be today again. So we wait for tomorrow again. And we continue this cycle until we reach the perfect today, where every goal is accomplished, every dollar is in the bank, every aspect of our body is sculpted to perfection, our relationship is flawless, our living space is a Pinterest board in action, our job is the most perfect and exciting event, and every single thing has fallen into place. Our loved ones are happy, healthy, and successful, our friends are effortlessly supportive and noncompetitive, our coworkers do not know conflict, on and on and on and on.
Let’s try to imagine Today as a person, maybe? Some entity with feelings, a thing in space that is all it can ever be but is never good enough. Wouldn’t we be so quick to look at a friend who is trying hard and making progress but is disappointed in the point they are at today and say, “But look at the progress you’ve made?”
“Look at the positives that are held within this day?” [That this day, as a being, holds for you]
“Can’t you see how far you’ve come since last week? Since yesterday?” [Although you may not have sat within your day 1 week ago and thought that you were satisfied, what would today be without that day? Maybe we should think of our days as friends. In the same way that the you of yesterday can either be a help or a hindrance to the you of Today, the days in which we spend our time might be seen as helping hands to each other. Knowing this, wouldn’t it make sense to appreciate every facet of Today, every far-reaching implication of daily decisions, and to appreciate the value of each day with an enthusiastic thankfulness?]
The fact of the matter is, there will never be a day when every aspect of life is at its peak, just as no day will ever be a completely negative experience. If we spend every single day viewing the world from a space of lack and of want and of refusal to acknowledge what we currently have because it is not the final result that we desire, we will never truly experience a single day of our lives.
A skill that I have worked on with intention and perseverance over the past several months is appreciation of the day as it is.
Within each gift of a day there might not be a dream job opportunity, an inspired set of words to be written, a strong enough WiFi signal to share a travel creation, a comfortable sleeping situation, a clean shower, a chance to call my mom, etc, but there is always space for peace within the day. To spend each day knowing that this day will never be repeated and that the experiences of Today will only serve as a helping hand for my experience with tomorrow, regardless of productivity in many ways, is REFRESHING.
For many (myself included), it is a learned skill to experience each day with peace and to strip anxiety of its power to drain today of its unique experience.
I encourage you so strongly to learn to sit with your day, each day, and acknowledge it exactly as it is. Through time spent working towards goals and ticking items off the to-do list, don’t get so caught up in using your day merely as a stepping stone to be passed over.
That is no way to treat a day.
em [@go.get.em_]
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