A NEW DAY

  Sitting here early on the last morning of 2011, drinking my coffee and just thinking about what pops in my head , I started thinking about how we tend to compare everything , we compare this day with yesterday or the same day a year ago or 23 years ago on this date. I tend to compare my pain level today with yesterday, or last week or last year and I do the day and myself an injustice.  The weatherman compares today's weather with yesterdays, with a year ago, with the record weather on today's date. We compare our lives with others and we compare our lives today with what it was in the past. I believe we do ourselves a disservice when we do this. Today is what it is, it is not the past or the future, it is today. It is brand new, literally. It should not be compared with yesterday. What happens today is what the day is , it is unique and frankly it is what it is. Each day is truly a gift of now, it is unique and one of a kind, what we do today, what happens good or bad, successes or our failures today will belong to that day only. We can keep that day as a memory to think about but we must not compare it with any other day because in truth there is nothing to compare the day to , it is what it is. We compare everything to gauge whether or not it is 'normal', and I am thinking , normal to what? Just like the weatherman averages the temperatures to tell us whether or not today's temperature is normal, again normal to what?
Today is a gift, if I am trying to lose weight, or if I am trying to quit drinking or smoking or what ever it is, I should not compare how I did or am doing with my past actions, today is what it is, a new beginning and so we can ,today decide whether or not we will eat that piece of cake or smoke that cigarette or drink that drink, a choice we should make moment by moment when the temptation rares it's head. I view a temptation as a gift too, because we get the gift of a little time to choose whether or not we want to take the temptation or not, we don't always get a chance to choose like that and temptations give of that gift of a little time to decide whether or not we want to do what we are being tempted to do, time to weigh the options and consequences of our actions if we do what we are being tempted to do. Many people do not take that gift of time the temptation gives us ,to look at our actions and at the consequences  that arise because  of them.

So on this last unique day of 2011 , I will look over the past year, at the gifts and challenges it gave me and give thanks that I was given yet another year to live my life and savor all that it was and I will try not to think about 2012 because it has not happened yet, I will savor this day on it's own merit. My only New Year's resolution is to take each day as it is,  a new beginning and a chance to be who I choose to be each moment of that day and I hope that this will allow me to see the gift I am being given every new day.
blessed be,
Owlthena