We all know what today means. There is never any doubt or confusion. I am sad that this is the case for most of us. The certainty of these first two sentences hide the beauty, importance and the possibility of our today.
Two things stand out for me about today. Our today truly is unique as NO ONE else will experience today the way you or I will. My wife will experience today differently than I will. My son or daughter will experience life differently today than you or I will. My co-worker will experience life today differently than I will.
Today is different for all of us. No two “todays” are ever alike even though the calendar has the same date and our watch has the same time. No one can ever copy our today. Never. Never. Never.
Think about it. We have different friends, different interests, different responsibilities, different lists that need to get done. We have had different experiences, different training, different hardships.
While you may be influenced by others in living your “today” (through interruption or interaction), the order, the emphasis, the pressures, the inclusion or exclusion of something will be different for each of us. The circles we travel in are different for each of us therefore how we experience today will be different for each of us.
The second thing about understanding “today” is that it is (most times) used at the end of a sentence. I need to go to the laundry today. My children have a baseball game today. I need to go to the grocery store after work today.
When we use the word today at the end of a sentence it comes across as though we are trapped. That we have no choice, no freedom, no influence in our lives. We are more like the horse pulling a cart rather than the stallion running wild in the field.
Today is never confused with yesterday. Today is never confused with tomorrow. We need to remind ourselves daily that today is “our ground” and we are “the wheel” (see my earlier post “Three Parts Needed – Not One!”). We need both for there to be movement.
We need today DESPERATELY to get movement in our lives.
Movement in our lives will not occur on any other day except today.
Of this I am very certain.
We need to change and put today at the front of our sentences. Today I will………… Today I will…….. Even more importantly, if we can internalize that everyone’s today is so different, the entire world opens us up to its richness, its uniqueness, and its possibilities every time we enter into a new conversation or take our next breath.
[Isn’t it fascinating how different we can see things when they are explained in a different way? What is scary about this for me is just how important our thoughts are in how we think about and live our lives!]