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| My beauty today is a relection of what I did in the past. My tomorrow is what I work on now |
Living in the Now, the
Yesterday AND the Tomorrow
I was very
fortunate to learn the concept of deferred gratification when I was still
young. This practice requires that you put off what you want to work on what
you need.
I had lots
of role models for this kind of lifestyle. Whenever I was in a hurry to get or
do something I desired, my mother would admonish me by saying that Rome was not
built in a day.
Under my
breath I would mumble that it fell in one and then I’d hear from down the hall “No
it didn’t, that had been happening for a long time.”
My
godmother, Thelma Rainey was one of the best dressed women in Delaware. As the
pastor’s wife, she said that part of her job was to look good, but she only did
so on Sunday’s and special church services when visitors would be in
attendance.
The rest of
the time she said she dressed like her husband’s cleaning woman.
I always
marveled at how she could buy an amazing dress and then hold it for just the
right moment. She would wait to have the right jewelry, shoes, gloves and hat
to match. If by chance she didn’t have just the right handkerchief, she’d wait
until she did.
I only had a
few dresses and could barely wait to put on anything new, but over time, these
lessons of patience took root.
They did me
well through graduate school and then on in life. Lately though, when I get
something wonderful, I put it on right away. Even if I don’t go anywhere, I
enjoy a gift I’ve been given right away.
Time is a
tricky thing. We are told to live in the NOW and be present. Then we are told
to plan for a future and learn from our past.
Today, I have a piece of mystery; magic if you
will to share with you.
You can live in all three.
In your mind and dreams you can
revisit your past to learn for your present and you can imagine your desired future
before shaping and planning it.
The more deliberate you are in your
planning, the more concrete and tangible the outcome.
This week, I will elaborate more on
this idea of three-fold living but for now begin the practice with these thoughts:
·
What
lesson do I need from my past right now? In other words, have I been in this
situation before? Recall a moment when you have felt, recalled or experienced
what you are experiencing now. What did you not do then, that you should do
now?
·
What
would you like your tomorrow to look like? Imagine it and dream it tonight,
then recall and live it tomorrow.
·
What
should you wait for? What should you do immediately? We often rush into
something that can be done later, but procrastinate on the things we need to do
now. Your spirit and intuition are your best voice, but unfortunately, we don’t
use time to fine tune them.
What I see in the mirror is the
reflection of what I’ve done in the past. What I’d like to become is what I am
practicing now.
Be you, be well be a time-traveler.
Bertice Berry, PhD.
I just spent a week moving my mother from my childhood home to the (smaller) house her parents lived in. We had lots of discussions about what goes and what stays. She stayed strong throughout the move. I dug up a framed print that was on her bedroom as a child (unbeknowst to me) and suggested that we hang in the kitchen. It had been hidden for 40 years. She smiled when I hung it in her "new" ktchen. We carry the past with us. Small reminders are great comfort of where we have been and what we have to give to the future. I will now protect that picture forever.
ReplyDeleteWow, thank you for that beautiful image of you, your mom and the picture. I am encouraged by that thought and reminded that my mother is with me still. Thank you
DeleteMy mom has inspired her children and grandchildren with her strength AND her design. It seems everyone's kitchens are in her colors. We all interpret in our own way, but the colors are all the same. We celebrate the past but modernize to our life. I asked my niece how she picked the colors for her kitchen, and she spoke about the comfort of granny's. We carry the past to the future.
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