This day

Look to this day!
For it is life, the very life of life.
For yesterday is already a dream,
and tomorrow is only a vision;
But today, well-lived,
makes every yesterday a dream of happiness,
and every tomorrow a vision of hope.

From The Sanskrit

…The clouds that gather round the setting sun
Do take a sober colouring from an eye
That hath kept watch o’er man’s mortality;
Another race hath been and other palms are won.
Thanks to the human heart by which we live;
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys and fears;
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

William Wordsworth
From Ode: Intimations of Immortality

To live each day well — it seems so insurmountable a task on those weary mornings when we rise for work and all the worlds we’ve discovered in the past are the past, and a sameness has settled over our lives and routines, that comforting sameness and lack of surprise that dwells in the very heart of each of us. And for all the comforts which this balm of sameness provide, and for their cushion against shock, still it seems as if the rude awakenings of life, the haunting sorrows, the failures, and by the same token, the knowledge of love, the joy of springtime remembered, the cloudy, hot, swallow-filled skies at sunset above me on the porch, the restfulness in dreamy abandonment of cares — it seems as if all those memories, good and bad, are what mostly comprise the life of the present, as if the moment itself reveals nothing.

But we must be careful about relying upon the past too heavily for enlightenment and truth, the sages tell us. Confronting the exacting and precious moment, the here and now which is trying to reveal life’s subtle essences to me, I have sat here oblivious to the possiblity of grasping this knowldge, this great truth that the present moment is all I have, all that the memories rest upon. Oblivious until now, when I make the effort to understand.

On a quiet and still Sunday morning at 10:15, I look out my window and see the branches of the oak tree blowing in a gathering wind. This is my happiness. Not the thrill of some ecstatic and passing sensation of the senses or desires, or re-living old memories continuously, but the knowledge of being alive to the possibility of greater love, and beauty and hope. For it is true that in the present moment are born the seeds of future happiness, which resides in the vision of my soul at rest, as it is now trying to be.

I don’t have the right superlatives at my fingertips. This entry is among my favorites — Beautiful & poetic & true.

i second that! thank you for this entry

get out the hammock its nap time!

sometimes its like you write just to me *blushing* i know thats not true but your words always reach me and so it seems that way i suppose …

Agree with Osprey. I can’t just find the right words. This entry is simply wonderful. I will send this to some of my friends.

Sometimes the hardest thing to remember is to look to THIS DAY, the one we have right now…..Thanks for reminding us today.

More than gorgeous.

It is an odd thing, Oswego, when we reach the point that we are afraid it is all behind us and nothing ahead but if each moment of the past had not been a moment of the present, then we learn that this now is truth.

Hi Oswego. I was surfing and found a site that was marvellous. Perhaps some of your contemporaries are listed. http://www.digitalstoryteller.com/YITL/ Hope you enjoy it. Chercheuse. (Not signed in)

itsbreeze

September 17, 2000

“being here now” is sometimes so hard….

A good reminder for me, as well. Relish these days and save their memories. Very beautifully written as always, Oswego.

as always beautiful.. i really love reading your writings sir.. 🙂

Willy & Wilma

From a GE exhibit at Disney World many years ago: “There’s a big,bright, beautiful tomorrowshining at the end of every day.

Nice entry! Thank you!

This is a beautiful entry. I enjoyed reading and will return.

I have no superlatives either..this one is my favorite though..you’re really falling into nature, love, peace and the now.This one I am saving.

I have now had the time to read your entry. To this, your thoughts that have captured the heart of my thoughts, I say Amen, amen, amen.

Bramble

September 20, 2000

That was just beautiful!

Dear O, however are you? You are often in thought & today I had to come here, however briefly, to leave a footprint upon your page. Lovely entry. May write you. Hurrying as ever. Akhmatova

:::sigh:::

Hamlet

September 25, 2000

All very true.

Amanda Cayhill

You are an exceptional writer and here is yet more proof. This last paragraph is as beautiful and profound in its moment as any classic having stood the test of time.

Lovely writing. 🙂

This, I would go to don’t ya’ know :)…beautiful entry, Oswego. I am catching up, lingering here.

Edelweis

April 25, 2002

This is a wonderful entry…and I especially love the last part very much. Each new day is a gift, and an opportunity to grow. If we knew that tonight’s sunset would be our last one we would look with even more admiration and love! It’s also my happiness to look at all that beauty around me, to the flowers, a joyful butterfly and the waving trees…But your most beautiful sentence is this one:

…”but the knowledge of being alive to the possibility of greater love, and beauty and hope.” Being alive here and now…feel the warmth if we fully realize what that means! What a wonderful gift, and how it opens so much more possibilities to grow and… You said it so beautiful, I could only repeat it. Take care and have a nice day tomorrow,