I’m sitting down to write this without a clear picture of how I want to convey what has been floating around in my thoughts, off-and-on, over the last year or so. I’m just going to start writing and let the revisions happen.
There are many, many great ideas discussed in Wallace D. Wattles’ book, “The Science of Getting Rich”; chapter seven on gratitude is an example of one of those powerful ideas. I love that chapter.
And as much as I love chapter seven on gratitude, it’s the idea discussed in chapter nine, “Acting In The Certain Way” that I want to write about today. I’ll start by quoting from that chapter. This quote and others from The Science of Getting Rich are from the Neeland Media LLC., Kindle Edition. “Act now. There is never any time but now, and there never will be any time but now.” That quote reminds me of this saying, “The best day to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best day to plant a tree is today.”
A few paragraphs after the first thing I quoted, Mr. Wattles writes, “You cannot act where you are not; you cannot act where you have been, and you cannot act where you are going to be; you can act only where you are. Do not bother as to whether yesterday’s work was well done or ill done; do today’s work well. Do not try to do tomorrow’s work now; there will be plenty of time to do that when you get to it.”
The thought that has been going through my mind for a while has a lot to do with what I just quoted, but not in the sense of getting done what needs to be done; but more in the sense of decisions and of making committments.
I have learned that I am very capable of walking away from situations, people, and things when it suits me to do so; for better or for worse. There have been many times when this ability has served me well as when, for example, a different situation or opportunity arose and the old situation no longer required, or needed my attention. There have also been times when walking away from a situation, a person or a thing was just to avoid discomfort and responsibility.
I could be remembering this wrong, but I seem to recall a time when rather than officially breaking up with a girlfriend, I simply stopped seeing her; no phone call or visit, no note or letter, just pure avoidance. I don’t know how she reacted to that; maybe she thought, “Whew, glad he’s not around anymore”, or maybe it caused her pain or self-doubt. I really don’t know.
I did something similar with the wonderful young lady I ended up marrying and to whom I am still, gratefully, married to. (40 years this year!) Fortunately for me, she is very forgiving, kind and loving.
Recalling the situation of walking away from girlfriends and of imagining the pain that it may have caused is an underlying idea behind why I have been thinking about the concepts in chapter nine. I feel remorse for what I did, and at the same time I am grateful for the contrast and perspective it provides me now.
I acknowledge my capacity to abandon something or someone and I wonder if I will ever do that to the people I love today. Wondering that is when this sentence comes to mind, “You cannot act where you are not; you cannot act where you have been, and you cannot act where you are going to be; you can act only where you are.” In other words, one day at a time. Today is all I really need to think about. My decision today is to choose to be with, to love, and to support the people who are in my life today.
I recall many of the people who have been in my life, and who are no longer a part of my life. I recall them and the situations we were in together with gratitude and love. I am grateful for them as individuals and for how their choices and actions, whether painful or pleasant, helped shape me into the person I am today. I don’t lament that they are no longer in my life because a part of them is woven into my very being.
There was a time when I had a hard time reconciling past loves, friendships and situations with what was going on in my life at the time. That is when the lyrics of a certain song finally made sense to me. I had listened to this particular song hundreds of times, but I didn’t, until that point, have the life experience to understand or appreciate what was being said. The song is, “In My Life”, penned by John Lennon and performed by The Beatles. Here are the lyrics:
There are places I’ll remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places had their moments
With lovers and friends, I still can recall
Some are dead, and some are living
In my life, I’ve loved them all
But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Though I know I’ll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I’ll often stop and think about them
In my life, I love you more
I really like the fact that the phrase “I love you more” is written in the present tense; not the conditional tense, or the future tense, or any other tense; the present tense.
“Do not bother as to whether yesterday’s work was well done or ill done; do today’s work well. Do not try to do tomorrow’s work now; there will be plenty of time to do that when you get to it.”
I choose to love, to be committed to, to be faithful to, and to help the people in my life today: family, friends, co-workers, casual acquaintances and others. My decision to do so today is all that matters.
