by Stella Kaye

Created on: December 28, 2009   Last Updated: December 29, 2009

‘JAM YESTERDAY, JAM TOMORROW BUT NEVER JAM TODAY’

Anyone who has read ‘Alice in wonderland’ will perhaps be familiar with the above quotation which hints at how easy it can be for us to disregard the present when memories of the past and hopes of future events preoccupy us.

When we are young it is perhaps easier to put things off and live in the present; after all we have all the time in the world, but as most of us reach middle age we realise that time is a much rarer commodity than we previously thought. Will we ever have enough time be able to do all the things we want and see all the places we want to visit when our day to day lives are so busy and complicated?

When I was young and impressionable an older friend of mine often used to say:

‘Yesterday has gone- forget it.

 Today is here - use it.

 And tomorrow may never come.’

Her advice was perhaps not original but what a wonderful precedent to live by. She died in her early fifties, he life cut short by cancer and I have never forgotten her sensible advice, especially now when I am fast approaching the age she was when she met her untimely end.

Most people tend to live in the past or hope for a better future while completely overlooking the present. We are all products of our past but we should not allow bad past experiences to hamper future progress.

I firmly believe that if you take each day as it comes and do your utmost to make some progress then tomorrow will bear the fruits of today’s actions. We must be productive today if we desire a successful tomorrow. The past present and future are liked by progress.

I have a ninety two year old mother; whatever we talk about she ends up reminiscing about the war years as these times were the most memorable in her life. I bring her a supply of wartime novels which she is always eager to read at the rate of three per week. She met a great deal of interesting people in the war and in spite of the terrible situation of living in London during the blitz, those years were still the best in her life. She was twenty two when the war broke out and wasn’t going to let something like a global conflict spoil her youth. Several close friends and loved ones were killed in armed combat and workmates were blown into an emergency water tank, some lost their lives and others their limbs. My mother felt guilty because she survived those years unharmed:  ‘Well, apart from cutting my hand on a broken cup when

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