Blog 412 – 09.22.2016

Just how do we make the most of today? It is as easy as changing your clothes – change your mind. A great song from the nineteen thirties, a very troubling time, gives this clue, ” Forget your troubles come on get happy. Chase all your blues away.” One way the blues continue to haunt us is when we constantly remember troubled times from our past. A wise inspired man once wrote a long time ago, “This one thing I do forgetting what is behind I press forward…” Trying to live your life always watching out the rear window is not the best way to get the most out of today.

Many if not all of us have some pleasant memories from our past that we like to take out from time to time like precious faded photographs to cherish but be careful you do not miss today looking too longingly back to a by gone day. One other surefire way to minimize today is to worry about or long too much for something in the future. A future that may or may not be can still rob us of the joys and pleasures of today if we allow our minds to be captivated by the future as by the past.

Today is the day and the more we keep our focus on “the blessed now and now” the better start we can hope to have in the sweet bye and bye. Our days begin however they begin because of what we dreamed, thought, believed, and spoke about yesterday. At any time, and there is no time like the present, we can improve our day by changing our dreams, our thoughts, or our beliefs, and our words to something more positive and up beat. There is way too much emphasis on our actions, our behavior, as if we can really change those and that would change us and our world.

There is a sad and very wrong song in the movie Forest Gump when Jenny is doing drugs, drinking, and living an out of control life in California. She at one point even steps up on a high rise balcony railing and thinks of jumping to her death. The song plays, “And this bird you cannot change. And this bird you cannot change. Lord knows I can’t change.” The song is “Freebird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd but the lyric is wrong. The Lord knows no such thing and even you in your heart of hearts know you can change. You can change your mind.

Another sad song from about the same time period, the nineteen seventies says, “Some things will never change. That’s just the way it is.” Both of these songs speak to the same error in thinking – the fearful, hopeless way of thinking, ” It has always been this way and it is always gonna be this way.” It will not change at least for the better by trying to change people’s behavior or by electing a new President. People need to change their minds and all the rest will follow. Try thinking, “It’ gonna be a great day.” Give the day and everyone around you including yourself the benefit of the doubt and a reputation to live up to. It is going to be a great day. It always is no matter what.

Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White