This is the Day the Lord has Made

When I was in high school, my mom wrote out a free verse poem for me on a piece of stationary.  I still have it, in her dear and beautiful script, framed on my desk so I can read it often.  When my children each grew up and got ready to leave home, I copied it for them, in my own handwriting, and framed it. I am guessing that Mom didn’t write this – it doesn’t sound like her voice, though it does sound like her thoughts.  If someone knows where the poem came from, I’d love to know, but even then I will always know that it came to me from my mom.  Here’s the poem:

Today is mine.

It is unique,

Nobody in the world has one exactly like it.

It holds the sum of all my past experiences, and all my future potential.

I can fill it with joyous moments or ruin it with fruitless worry.

If painful recollections of the past come into my mind, or frightening thoughts of the future,

I can put them away.

They cannot spoil today for me.

I think a lot about this sentiment. It’s funny how I’ve read this poem and absorbed it differently at various places and stages of my life.  In my younger days, I concentrated on the ‘I am unique’ part.  I was filled with my own special-ness, thankful that God put me here to share me with the world. (My own self esteem was not an issue at that stage of life, for sure!)  Then, as an adult and being my mother’s daughter, (my mom worried about everything), I needed a reminder on a daily basis to not fret.  Trust God was its message to me then. Now, with a comfortable but clear notion that my earthly days are numbered, I’m so thankful to be reminded that my life’s path and my attitude towards that path are a choice.  Each day is a gift. Whether I’m in the garden or at the computer, today is unique and I can’t in good conscience waste it.  If life gets hard and I become ill, or grief comes my way, or there are more aches and pains, or financial trouble, or whatever bads the world can throw out, I want to remember that today is unique and I can’t in good conscience waste it.  The lady who frequently sits behind us in church, when I ask her how she is, frequently leads her answer with “Thank God for Life!” Amen!