Wednesday, May 17, 2006


"One Day"

I can't tell you how often I've heard that expression from patients, colleagues and friends. Like a holy mantra, it is spoken as if it were the sacred goal of life.

It is thought that most of us live in the past and the future. We worry about what might or might not happen or we fret over something that we've done and can no longer change. The problem with this way of living is that we are never in the present. We are not here and now. So, life passes us by and, one day, we find it nearlly over and wonder what the heck happened.

Although there is something to be said about appropriately delayed gratification, there is no guarantee that "one day" will ever come. Yet, we often go day to day, begrudgingly working our jobs in the hope of a big pay off "one day". That's when (we believe) we will retire or make that trip or do the whatever that lingers in our hearts awating its turn. How sad when death or disability preceeds "one day".

I just returned from coffee with JB. The weather guy says there will be thunderstorms this afternoon. I have been waiting to get out to Lake Nemahbin to put my skin on frame through its paces. But it is a 40 minute drive, and I feel lazy. I've thought about cleaning out my Blazer and/or the garage. And, there's that stack of books I've been meaning to get to, as well.

Then, I recalled the "one day" people I've met and how most of them never got to that day.

I gotta' go. The lake is anxious to see me.

DS

1 comment:

derrick said...

nice post! I know that feeling. I'd like to think "one day" is something people say who've not spent much time at the final curtain. But I know that's not true. Even our complacency is resilient. So we forget how fragile we are and we're suddenly putting off until tomorrow again. Strange. But then someone said to me once that if we were truly aware of our own mortality society would not be able to function. Maybe that's true. . .