The Gift of Today.

Today has been one of those days where my mind is literally going insane.

Now, you have to understand something about me. I'm a person who thinks a LOT. I daydream constantly about things I know will never happen: being famous, for example. I overthink things that have already happened: breakups or arguments with friends. And I just...think in general, which can be both effective and detrimental. 

Today was a little of both, I'd like to think. 

Heh. See what I did there? 

...........yeah.

Ok, so my mom is in charge of a large homeschool drama troupe in a town near mine, and the graduating seniors are performing The Music Man this spring. She paid me to re-type the entire script for their rehearsal a few days ago, and as I was reading through it, I found this:

Harold Hill: "Meet me at the footbridge in 15 minutes."

Marian: "I just can't. Please, some other time? Maybe tomorrow."

Harold: "My dear little librarian--pile up enough tomorrows and you'll find you've collected nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays. I don't know about you but I'd like to make today worth remembering."

I love it. Because I'm beginning to realize that life is such a gift. I know I'm not really that old, but even thinking about the 22 years I've lived so far...and thinking about all of the days I'll never be able to retrieve...to try again...it saddens me.

Each day is a priceless treasure, and we should be living that way. But we so often don't! 

I'm preaching to myself, FYI. Cause I need to hear this more than most. I look at the past 3 months of my life, the time I've been at home since graduating...and it's pathetic to see how little I've accomplished. Yes, I've had breakthroughs in my walk with the Lord. I've been able to reconnect with people that have been around my entire life. But...I'm living each day just waiting for something to happen; to find a job, to move out of town, to move on with my life.

That's incredibly tragic. 

Why not make these days something meaningful, something that I can look back on and say, "That was a wonderful time in my life...and I wouldn't trade it for anything."

I mean, looking back on my day, it seems pretty normal. Did chores, applied for jobs, had a rehearsal...you know, the average day.

But if I dive a little deeper and look at my day as if unwrapping a present...

Everything changes.

Last week someone told me, "Everyday you should write down at least 5 things that you're thankful for about that day. It will revolutionize your outlook on life." So here's what I'm thankful for from today.

I'm thankful for a sent text to a friend, saying "I need your advice on this. Can you let me know what you think?" And they did. 

I'm thankful for a written letter, one that part of me hopes will never be read. (But another lesson I'm learning is that we never know when we will speak with someone for the last time. So we have to make sure that everything we want someone to know...is known. Even if it's difficult to say.)

I'm thankful for random thoughts; those passing moments of peculiarity and absurdity that I have throughout a day. Such as:

     -Isn't it amazing how something as simple as as a kiss can completely change your universe?

     -Why is it so difficult for left-handed people to write in a straight line?

     -What is it about that one phrase of a song that lodges itself permanently into my brainwaves? Why that phrase and not another? 

I'm thankful for the timeless authors of the past and the ability we have to still read their work today. (I'm currently reading "Bleak House" by Charles Dickens, in case you were wondering.)

I'm thankful for the discovery that true friends come in the most unexpected places, and always when you're not searching for them.

I'm thankful for the hope I have in the future, even though I'm trying to live my life for today.

John Piper writes of his college professor Clyde Kilby. During one particular lecture, Kilby urged his students to look around them and soak in the beauty of life. Piper says, "His plea was that we stop being unamazed by the strange glory of ordinary things."

Ordinary things. Simple things. They're usually the most breathtaking.

Tomorrow is another day; another gift to be unwrapped and beheld in wonder. 

I can't wait.