I ran into a thought provoking commentary recently that might provide some insight for thought when one considers the problem of making New Year’s resolutions. My research failed to yield the name of an author of the piece.
TODAY
Author Unknown
There are two days in every week about which we should not worry.
Two days which should be kept free from fear, apprehension and doubt.
One of those days is yesterday with its mistakes and cares, its faults and blunders, its aches and pains.
Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control.
All the money in the world cannot bring back yesterday.
We cannot undo a single thing we did.
We cannot erase a single world we said.
Yesterday is gone.
The other day we should not worry about is tomorrow with its adversities, its burdens, its large promise and poor performance.
Tomorrow is also beyond our immediate control.
Tomorrow’s sun will rise, either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds, but it will rise.
Until it does, we have no stake in tomorrow for it is yet to be born.
This leaves only one day. Today.
Any person can fight the battles of just one day.
It is when you and I add the burdens of those two awful eternities, Yesterday and Tomorrow that we break down.
It is not the difficulties of Today that drive us mad.
But remorse and bitterness over something which happened Yesterday and the fear of what Tomorrow may bring.
Look well, therefore, to this day.
For it is life.
The general gist of that observation is hardly new. Omar Khayyam [1048-1131], in his epic Rubaiyat, put it more succinctly and more lyrically as translated into English by Edward Fitzgerald [1809-1833]. This is an excerpt:
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit,
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
But helpless pieces in the game He plays,
Upon this checker-board of Nights and Days,
He hither and thither moves, and checks… and slays,
Then one by one, back in the Closet lays.