by PKMitchell

Created on: February 11, 2009   Last Updated: June 29, 2009

Life is what happens while you're busy making plans for tomorrow. We stress and we worry about what the future will bring, especially in the current "challenging" economic environment, but in doing so we quite often miss the blessings that today brings.

The "what ifs" of tomorrow cause the anxiety attacks of today. We sit at our desks and worry "what will happen if I lose my job tomorrow?" or "what will happen if I can't pay my bills tomorrow?" We go through our list of things that have to be done and worry about things over which we have no real control and before we know it, the day is over and we have missed it.

That is not to say that we should not make plans or have goals for tomorrow and the next day and the next, but rather that we should not let the worries of what "might" happen consume us today.
Great minds throughout history have admonished us to not worry about tomorrow because it will take care of itself (Jesus) and to "never let the demands of tomorrow interfere with the pleasures and excitement of today" (Meredith Willson). Willson also said "You pile up enough tomorrows and you'll be left with nothing but a bunch of empty yesterdays. I don't know about you, but I'd like to make today worth remembering. "

Of course the greatest philosopher of all time, Charlie Brown's father, Charles Schulz, summed up the absurdity of worry over tomorrow most succinctly when he said "Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia."

Why worry about tomorrow when today is so full of surprises (good and bad), blessings, and challenges all its own? Certainly make a plan for dealing with things that have to be done writing due dates of bills on a calendar, deadlines for work on a spreadsheet, or school assignments and events on the family schedule but then put the stresses of those future events away for today.

Life is happening all around you today. Enjoy it while you can. Today keep in mind this philosophy, whose author is unknown, that "Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it by the handle of anxiety, or by the handle of faith."

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