Where'd the Cookies go?

So many times I hear this from people "I can't wait til Friday (and it is Monday)" "I wish this day would hurry up and end" "Can we fast forward to next weekend (And it is still the present weekend)?

I do this sometimes too, but I have lately been thinking about life differently. We wish away the present and only long for better exciting times in the future. As if this day we have been given isn't enough.

Life does get overwhelming. I know this all too well. Now I don't have major responsibilities, only a job, bills and a dog. Kids, owning a house, being married, appointments and 50 'leven things to do don't surround me. But I do know what it is like to wish days were over and wish we could just live in the happy fun exciting times all the time.

But I think we miss something much bigger than how we see it when we wish away today. You can't change your past- so there is no need to dwell there and keep living in memories that have been written, stamped, sealed, and delivered to closed chapters in the book of your life. You can't predict the future- so there really isn't a point to aim hopelessly at getting at the next day or looking forward to things way down the road to just get us out of where we are today. You can use your past to shape your future. The things you do now set the course for how things could go for you. Take the lessons you have learned, from your mistakes as well as others, take the blessings you have been given, and resolve to not let the things of yesterday or today determine your tomorrow.

How often do you really live in the NOW? Not gazing off for tomorrow in your dreamlike fairytale of a life- and certainly not in the place where you can only visit in memory and not in real life. The NOW. What are you doing NOW?

Do you enjoy the day or is it just a dread and you have to push through, just holding onto a glimmer of hope that tomorrow is GOING to be better? Do you take time (to smell the roses)? Or do you gobble up your day like the Cookie Monster does cookies and have nothing left to show at the end of it but regret and arms wide open with a confused facial expression of "where'd the cookies go"?

Yes- days to suck. Yes- sometimes the past makes its presence known all to well and it clouds our vision for today. Yes- sometimes tomorrow is gonna be more fun. BUT- what are you missing out on today? Maybe it is a long converstation with someone you don't know- or normally wouldn't talk to. Maybe it is getting work done so you can ENJOY that tomorrow. Maybe- just maybe- it is time for you to sit and pray.

I hope you read this and are reminded to live in the NOW. Not what was or could be- but just the now. Don't wish away your todays, because those tomorrows could turn out to be worse, or even yet, not happen. Live in the now- and you wont question where the cookies went.