Michelle (M): I saw an article by Bo Sanchez posted by a schoolmate on Facebook, which reinforced my sentiments these past few weeks about living in the "now."
Life is short. Morbid as it may sound, we can die anytime; that is a fact. Every single day that passes is one day closer to our death. My schoolmate, who miraculously recovered from a brain stroke that happened last December, said she is no longer taking anything for granted and considers everything as a blessing. In Bo’s article, he quoted Fulton Oursler who said: “We crucify ourselves between two thieves: Regret for yesterday and fear of tomorrow.”
Bo wrote that we protect ourselves from these two thieves by surrendering our regrets and fears to God, and enjoying God’s blessings now. Our problem is sometimes we don’t recognize blessings because we are either unaware or ungrateful or worse, both.
Darwin John (DJ): I remember a story about three gentlemen who were about to be executed.
The executioner aimed at the first man and the guard said, “Ready, aim ….” Suddenly, the man shouted “Earthquake!” This startled everyone and so he managed to escape. Then it was the second man’s turn. “Ready, aim …” shouted the guard. And the second man shouted, “Tornado!” Yet again, this startled everyone and he also escaped. The third man was already smiling because deep down he already knew what to do so he could also escape execution. The guard said, “Ready, aim …” Then with full force the third man shouted, “Fire!”
It helps to pause and take time to savor the moment. It’s good to sift through life’s experiences and learn the lessons. We gain better perspective. We make better choices. We live better lives.
M: A couple of weeks ago I noticed that we were about to run out of bath soap. I remembered that I received several perfumed bath soaps last Christmas, which I kept in the closet for use on special occasions.
This led me to think: When is a special occasion? We sometimes keep or forego things for our enjoyment, or use later only to never enjoy or make use of it. On the other hand, we are sometimes too fixated on past blessings that we do not learn to appreciate what we have today in the here and now.
DJ: Once there were three ladies who were stranded on an island. The brave one looked over the water to the mainland and estimated that they were about 30 kilometers to shore. Then she announced she was going to swim to shore. She swam for 10 kilometers, but was too tired to go on and so she drowned.
The smart one wondered if the brave girl made it. So she decided to also swim to the mainland rather than stay and starve. She had more endurance and swam 20 kilometers, but also became too tired to go on and so she drowned.
Scared about her prolonged exposure to the sun’s harmful rays, the pretty one also wondered whether the two girls made it. Eventually, she also decided to swim. So she swam out 10 kilometers, then 20 and finally, 29 kilometers! The shore was already in sight. But she said, “I’m too tired to go on.” So she swam back. But seriously, it’s been said that most of the things we regret in life are those we failed to do rather than the things we’ve done. Once we’ve already spent the needed time for discernment, let’s move as needed, seize each day and make each moment extraordinary.
M: To be happy and to fully appreciate “now,” we must live and be grateful for the present, even during difficult moments in our life. One time, during a very busy and stressful week, my three-year-old son asked me to stay beside him while he took his afternoon nap.
I got annoyed because I still had a lot of things to do, but I stayed home anyway and watched him sleep. I was pleasantly surprised to wake up after 30 minutes, realizing that I had been able to take a power nap that refreshed me before I went back to the office. Instead of being annoyed, we should think of these interruptions as a blessing. We are human beings, not human doings. Life is short. We should have time for people, for relationships, time for ourselves, and we must have time for God.
DJ: Just this week, I celebrated my birthday. It made me think about how great it is to live. Life is short. It’s challenging, but it’s beautiful. It’s best that we live it as who we are, and do all the good things we need to do while we still can.
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