(Madisyn Taylor)
The years of our life do not arrive all at once; they greet us day by day. With the descent of each setting sun, we are able to rest our heads and let the world take care of itself for a while. We may rest assured throughout the night, knowing that the dawn will bring with it a chance to meet our lives anew, donning fresh perspectives and dream-inspired hopes. The hours that follow, before we return to sleep once more, are for us to decide how we want to live and learn, laugh and grow. Our lives are sweeter and more manageable because we must experience them this way: one day at a time.
Imagine the future stretching out before you and try to notice if you feel any tension or overwhelm at the prospect of the journey still to come. If we can remain fully engaged in the day at hand, enjoying all it has to offer and putting our energy into making the most of it, we will find that we are perfectly ready and capable to handle any future when it arrives.
My Thoughts:
I’m not sure any of us are ever prepared for what life throws our way. If it is not the monotony of the days when we perceive that nothing happens that makes us think, then it is the curve balls that come out of the blue that make us wonder what it is all about.
Mahatma Gandhi Quote:
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
So maybe, that is the answer, to not worry too much about the journey ahead but live for the moment. It should be the things that you didn’t do that will be the regrets, not the things you tried. Okay, some things will be not work out as hoped, but at least you will have had a go.
I don’t regret doing a parachute jump. It was back in the days when you had to attend a full course at an airfield, run by the military before they would allow you the chance of certain death if you got it wrong. Long before H&S got involved and long before insurance was an issue. All you needed to do was pass a fitness test, sign the paperwork and attend the allotted training sessions. Then, on the final day the willing victims boarded a perfectly sound flying machine and upon reaching the designated height, one-by-one throw themselves into oblivion, tying desperately to remember everything learnt in order to prevent certain death.
I don’t regret doing a parachute jump. Looking back, it is something to be proud of, something to talk about, something that was a personal achievement, But, something I would NEVER do again. I must have been raving mad to even consider that it was something that was a good idea to have a go at.
That said, it didn’t curve my dare-devil tendencies … I loved abseiling, hang-gliding and learning to fly a plane, driving a tank, and banger racing, and off-road rallying, and riding a motorbike way too fast, just because I could. In hindsight, if I’d have known what was to come, I may just have been a little more circumspect … but what would have been the fun in that.