Jan 18, 2011

reflecting on reflecting





This is the time of year when we all do a lot of reflecting. Optimism prevails. We have high hopes for the year, we feel inspired.

All good things, these feelings. But do we need a new year to make us feel them?

I know how hard it is to maintain these feelings. Life happens. Stress takes over, sometimes bad things make it impossible to be optimistic. Or we just simply forget to notice the wonder we live in, every day.

I forget, a lot. All it takes is one crazy day and I start complaining and stop looking at the world around me. I suppose it's only natural. But I have learned to make an effort to find my way back to a place that isn't cynical, that place that allows me to see the world for what it truly is, a marvel of mystery. Even so, I don't get there every day.

There will always be good and evil, beauty and ugliness, sunshine and rain. We need to see both ends of the spectrum to appreciate those times when we stand in the middle. And if you think about, most of life is spent right there, in the middle.

We live a whole lot of average, ordinary days that we don't remember because nothing spectacularly good or bad happened. But the truth is, there is no such thing as ordinary.

Every day is unique, each day is a new beginning. They might not all turn out to be pretty or fabulous, or even forgettable, but each and every day is a clean slate with its very own pencil right there, hanging from a string.

We wake up each morning and we look in the mirror, and we see all the yesterdays that came before this day.

But do we see the beginnings? The possibility? Do we turn away from the mirror with a smile on our lips?

The yesterdays have molded us, the tomorrows give us hope, but we only ever get to live in today.

Breathe it in, this day. Reach for it. Embrace it, in all its glorious imperfection.

It's the only today you will ever have.


16 comments:

Karin van Dam said...

Beautiful post. Thank you for sharing.

Kathryn Dyche said...

This post is a welcome reminder on a bleak grey icy day. I'm such a pessemist but I'm trying to make the move towards more optiism. :0)

www.patbishop.info said...

wonderful writing, so true, thank you. Everyday is unique, we just forget how blessed we are and miss the beauty that surrounds us.

Bonita Rose said...

Thank you for this.
I had an extremely bad day yesterday.
Bad to the core.
I am still recovering.
Thank you for your words. xo

Anna said...

Very sage advice and lovely photo! Thanks for the reminder.

skye said...

Thanks, yes! I am somehow in this lovely stream of choosing to feel good, even when the outer situations are so hard you could bounce a nickel off of 'em. And, as they say, the more I'm doing it, the easier it becomes.

Lisa Gordon said...

Beautiful post Kelly.
Gives one a lot to think about.
Thank you for sharing!

Teresa O said...

I needed this post today as I feel inspiration slipping, writer's block setting in, and tedium of dreary setting in ever so lightly.

"The yesterdays molded us, the tomorrows give us hope, but we only ever get to live in today." Eloquently said.

Marianne said...

Beautiful thoughts. Thanks for the reminder. I often get caught up in the tomorrows and forget to live for today.

~Kristina said...

I love the last line. Great post to remember to live right now.

Marcie said...

Amen!
The last line summed it up and says it all!

ELK said...

KELLY i so like what you have done to the photograph and the words you weave today are filled with truth and such encouragement

Jamie said...

Kelly - I LOVE this post. I've hit the wall where that new year/fresh start I was working on seems to have crashed thanks to life. I needed reminding that tomorrow was a new day too.

Leah C said...

Absolutely beautiful!! Your words are magical:)

Gina M. said...

And what of years that are hard every single day without reprieve? How does one find hope and a sense of gratitude when every day and all year long is hard?

Prairie Girl Studio said...

an insightful and inspiring message, kelly ... xo

the hope of a new day and all the possibilities it holds ... if we aren't living with hope, even the sunniest days may seem bleak ...

i am just coming away from a year where many days i had to choose to face it with hope and choose to embrace the good i could take from it ... i just couldn't allow it to get darker ... there were no guarantees the day would better or worse than the next or the one we left behind ... that kind of consumption is crippling ...

i choose to pick up the pencil ...

xo
pg