Are you ready? Only 2 weeks till Christmas. Are you ready? Only 3 weeks to New Years Day. Are you ready? Only 14 weeks until the start of Daylight Saving Time. Are you ready? Only one day until tomorrow.
It seems we are always getting ready for something. True some things need a good dose of planning. If you’re thinking of having 12 people for Christmas Eve dinner, you should be getting ready now! If you’re already thinking that you can’t wait until we change the clocks back and are standing at the grandfather clock poised to adjust those hands, you are over prepared. And even though it is only one day away, if you haven’t planned for tomorrow, you may be shortchanging yourself.
It is true, no tomorrow is guaranteed any of us, so why plan that far ahead. On the other hand, we can’t treat any day, especially one as important as tomorrow so cavalierly as to pay more attention to an event half a month in the future than to what tomorrow may mean.
Believe it or not, today is the only day you get today. And tomorrow’s today will be the only today then. if you’re lucky enough to be here then. According to data compiled by the United Nations, 150,000 people die each day. That’s a lot of people. It may seem a drop in a bucket compared to the 8 billion people the UN estimates are inhabiting this earth. Unless you’re one of those 150,000. Or related to one of them. Or a good friend of one. The point is, there is no guarantee to a tomorrow. But should we still plan for it like we do for events weeks, months, and even years into the future? I say yes. Why?
How about hope?
C. S. Lewis said of hope, “Hope is the only thing that will keep you from despair.” I believe he is telling us that if we don’t have hope, we live in fear of being one of tomorrow’s 150,000. With hope we look forward to the new experiences tomorrow’s today will bring us just in case we aren’t. It’s why we try to be ready for tomorrow by being our best today.
So go ahead and plan for Christmas, New Year’s Day, even the start of Daylight Saving Time. Did you know there are only 10 weeks and two days until Valentine’s Day. And there’s only one day until tomorrow.
Are you ready?
How do you tell friends you love them? In writing of course! We explain in the most recent Uplift we we say say Every letter is a love letter.
The Real Reality Show Blog 
NICE POST 💚💖💯
Blessed and Happy day 🌞
Greetings 👋🇪🇸
Wonderful wisdom here…encouragement to be in the moment…present as much as possible…with gratitude. I do too much of that “looking ahead” and love the reminder to just BE. (As much as I can, anyhow.)
Thank you, Michael! 🥰
I am quite guilty of looking ahead far too often and at the end of the current day I am left wondering what I did with it. As I write and speak I find myself talking a lot about the specialness of today and the importance of recognizing it’s the only today we have. Yet there are too many todays I have lost because of not following my own advice. You’ve given me a good idea for an upcoming resolution:
Remember to just BE… as much as I can!
I should follow my own advice AND yours! 🥰
We can make it a dual resolution, accountable to each other for periodic progress reports!
I like it! You’ve got a deal! 🥰
To be sure, being able to stay focused on today and still be aware that some planning for tomorrow is necessary is a challenge. But I love you’re words of advice–enjoy what we have while we have it. Don’t be so gung-ho motivated to plan everything so carefully that there’s no room for fun and enjoyment at the moment. Thanks, Michael, for once again pointing out the truth of hope. CS Lewis knew what he was talking about. So do you.
Thank you Dayle. I think Lewis was probably a little deeper thinking than me, and that didn’t take much thinking to come up with! But trying to balance planning for tomorrow and focusing on today p, boy that can get one thinking hard. For me that’s where hope comes in. Not wishful thinking but actively working on doing something today that I feel good enough about bringing into tomorrow, and planning on something for the future that I can emotionally feel and enjoy, and make today more complete!
You, my friend, are a very wise man. I deeply value your thinking and authenticity. You push me to be a better person with your insights. I’m grateful!
Thank you, very humbly 🙂
10 weeks to Valentine’s Day? I think things look longer away when they traverse the beginning of the year. Thanks for the great reminder to enjoy this day!
There indeed are those divisions that create bigger gaps when they get crossed and they all seem to me to involve some annual event- the start of a year, the start of a school year, a birthday and the start of a personal year, an anniversary of some significant event. It’s another way we mark time – moment by moment, day by day, year by year. The jumps in between don’t seem to hold the same specialness.
As always. thanks for reading and enjoy your today!!