We Only Have Today

If you could do it all over again – would you? Would you choose the same path? The same man? The same career or lack of it?  Do you sometimes feel as if life chose you instead of the other way around?

Things happen. No one’s life goes exactly as they dreamt or planned it would go. I’m sure those who actually do sail down the path they dreamed of, would argue that life is not perfect and they’ve had many detours, unplanned events, and disappointments along the way. Maybe even their chosen life hasn’t fulfilled the expectations they’d grown inside of their hearts.

What if you could go back? What if you could go back to that crucial juncture in time when you made that life-changing decision….and make a different one?

I was thinking about that very question recently when I was watching “Seventeen…Again” with my girls. 

A lot of times we live our lives with regrets. We look at the past as if our options could have been better, richer, and more fulfilling. When in reality – they may just have been simply different.

Sometimes we just forget what it is we want. We forget what it is we have. And we fail to see the blessings and joys that exist right in front of us.

If we had made different choices in life, some of them might have been better for us. But we still probably would have struggled. We still would have had hard things to deal with. Tough obstacles and overwhelming hurts. That’s what life is. We live, we breathe, we love, we fail, we hurt, and we laugh. Ups and downs.

We are where we are for a reason. No amount of looking back will change where we currently are in life. No amount of reliving the past, or hoping we’d done things differently will change today. Only we can change today and make it better. Only we can be better.  Will we?  Will we grasp onto what we have and make the most of it? Will we flourish?

We only have today. Let’s make it count for something.

** Originally Published March 2011 Emphasis On Moms Publication