New Years Eve my girls and I took a trip.  Even if it was not a long trip and the total driving time was just a few minutes nevertheless I was carried to a magical place.  The trip began with a feast (a picnic lunch of chicken fingers, jojo potatoes and slaw) at my favorite picnic table on the planet.  Next we treat ourselves to the breathtaking sights and sounds of Little River Canyon.

        When I park the car and grab my camera I am just in time to see my daughters running down the path and shouting something about the first one there is the winner.  As I approach the finish line huffing and puffing I see them standing silently upon the rocks with their backs to me (they hardly even noticed my swift arrival… what’s up with that?)  As I took this photo I began to understand what had caught their attention.  It was the deafening sounds of a river that’s flexing its muscles after a long dry spell.  Also, the soothing noise of the untamed wind rushing up from canyon below was impossible to ignore.

        Minutes passed as we stood wordless on the edge of the great canyon.  Then it occurred to me that this is the last day of 2007.  Another year had passed and I would be forever helpless to change or add to the things I did in 2007.  As I began to get melancholy over the demise of my old friend 2007 I began to smile.  I cannot change yesterday. I can only make the most of today and look with hope toward tomorrow.  Isn't that the real secret of a happy life anyway?  Making the most of today is more important than what you did yesterday or what you might do tomorrow.

        Think about it.  Today is all we have; yesterday is gone and tomorrow is not ours yet.  All we have is today.  Let us make the most of this precious commodity we call today.  Let us love those around us like it was the last day of our lives.  Let us reach out to those who need a helping hand.  Smile, laugh, share, hug and do the things you wished you had done yesterday.  One day it will be too late to say the friendly word, to do that random act of kindness or to say, I am sorry.  Do it today.  Remember happiness is a choice; choose to make the most of today.

Something to think about:

• Look not mournfully into the past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the present. It is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future, without fear and with a manly heart.

• The moment passed is no longer; the future may never be; the present is all of which man is the master.

• When we yield to discouragement, it is usually because we give too much thought to the past or to the future.

• When you forgive you in no way change the past—but you sure do change the future.

• The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.

• The future is an opportunity yet unmet, a path yet untraveled, a life yet unlived. But how the future will be lived, what opportunities will be met, what paths traveled, depends on the priorities and purposes of life today.

• There is no past we can bring back by longing for it. There is only an eternal now that builds and creates out of the past something new and better.

Thankful for simple pleasures and someone to share them with
Rickey Moore