Today

I'm a day counter. Always have been.  I joined the Navy when I was 18 years old and the first time I counted the days until I got out the count was 1380, if you do the math I think you will find that I was a few weeks into a 4 year enlistment when I started counting the days.

About 9 years ago I had the opportunity to go on a cruise with my brother and his wife.  For six months I counted the days until we would leave on our cruise and the day we stepped onboard I started counting the days until it was over. My mom said my brother enjoyed the cruise but I enjoyed the anticipation of the cruise!

At the beginning of 2011 I counted the days until we would get back to America; once we got here I began counting the days until Christmas when we would have all of our kids home. The day we picked Chase up at the airport I was depressed because I knew it would be only 13 days before we had to say good-bye. 

I told you...I'm a day counter.

You know what's sad about that?  It's all the time I spend anticipating the future.  While anticipation can be a great motivator what a waste it is to spend life counting our days. How much life do I miss counting days?

The fact is that in the whole scheme of things TODAY IS ALL THAT MATTERS!  Yesterday is gone. Good or bad it is in the rear view mirror and it is not coming back.  Tomorrow may never come and even if it does, worrying today is not going to change tomorrow.

So somehow I guess I need to learn to live today.  Live today as if it is my only day.  The great philosopher and country music singer Tim McGraw says it like this: "Someday I hope you have the chance to live like you were dying."  What if I knew that today was it? What would I do?  Maybe that's how I ought to live....just in case!

My New Year's resolution?  I want to strive to live every day, I mean really LIVE every day.