Carpe Diem

“Enjoy where you are on the way to where you are going. Enjoy the journey. Don't waste all of your 'now time' trying to rush into the future.” (Joyce Meyer)

First I was dying to finish high school and start college.
And then I was dying to finish college and start working.
And then I was dying to marry and have children.
And then I was dying for my children to grow old enough for school so I could return to work.
And then I was dying to retire.
And now, I am dying… and suddenly I realise I forgot to live.

“The future is not some place we are going, but one we create. The paths are not found, but made, and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination.”  (John Schaar)

The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.

If you want to be a cheerleader to a friend, be a cheerleader when he or she is really moving out and stretching. Too many people affirm too late. Don’t wait for the race to be won, but encourage each step forward. Affirm immediately. The effect of an encouraging word loses its strength as time lapses.

We have in our society a lot of false hopes for happiness. We have what might be called destination disease. People think that when they arrive at a certain point, they’ll be happy. Your happiest moments happen along the way, not at the end of the trip.

“I shall pass through this world but once. Any good that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now and not defer it, for I shall not pass this way again.” (Stephen Grellet)

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” (Edmund Burke)

Fortunes are spent to engrave words in granite and marble that should’ve been spoken earlier by human lips. Those words you’ve thought of saying a thousand times, say them now while their ears can hear them, and their hearts can still be touched.

Around the corner I have a friend,
In this great city that has no end.
Yet days go by and weeks rush on,
And before I know it, a year is gone.

“Tomorrow,” I say, “I’ll call on Jim,
And let him know that I’m thinking of him.”
But tomorrow comes and tomorrow goes,
And the distance between us grows and grows.

Around the corner, yet miles away,
Then comes the news… Jim died today.
And that’s what we get, and deserve in the end,
Around the corner – a vanished friend!          (Charles H. Towne)

A single rose for the living is better than a costly wreath at the grave.

If you have a smile for Mother,
Give it now.
If you have a kindly word,
Speak it now,
She'll not need it when the angels
Greet her at the golden gate;
Give the smiles while she is living,
If you wait 'twill be too late.

If we discovered that we had only five minutes left to say all that we wanted to say, every telephone would be occupied by people calling other people to stammer that they love them.

“Uppermost in our minds is the final destination. On a certain day at a certain hour, we will pull into the station. Bands will be playing and flags waving. Once we get there, so many wonderful dreams will come true and the pieces of our lives will fit together like a completed jigsaw puzzle. How restlessly we pace the aisles, damning the minutes for loitering – waiting, waiting, waiting for the station. ‘When we reach the station - that will be it!’ we cry. ‘When I’m 18,’ ‘When I buy a new Mercedes Benz,’ ‘When I put the last kid through college,’ ‘When I have paid off the mortgage,’ ‘When I get a promotion,’ ‘When I reach the age of retirement, I shall live happily ever after!’ Sooner or later, we must realise there is no station, no one place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip. The station is only a dream. It constantly outdistances us. “Relish the moment” is a good motto, especially when coupled with Psalm 118:24: “This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” …So stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. Instead, climb more mountains, eat more ice cream, go barefoot more often, swim more rivers, watch more sunsets, laugh more and cry less. Life must be lived as we go along. The station will come soon enough.” (Robert J. Hastings)

“The worst of all tragedies would not be to die young, but to live until I am seventy-five and yet not ever truly to have lived.” (Martin Luther King)

If you cannot find happiness along the way, you will not find it at the end of the road.

Refuse to blame your past for your present or it will ruin your future.

Life’s not a dress rehearsal. Therefore live each day as though you won’t be around tomorrow – for you might not be.

“Live in present thanksgiving. Count thy sunbeams now. Treasure today the gems that are strewn upon the path. The love that is merely retrospective is a very painful thing… If thy days of sorrow at any time should cloud thy days of joy, I should like thee to be able to say, ‘Well, while they lasted, I did appreciate them." (George Matheson)

Don’t you wonder what some people might have done differently if they’d known they wouldn’t be around for the tomorrow we all take for granted?

He was going to be all that a mortal should be - Tomorrow.
No one would be kinder or braver than he - Tomorrow.
A friend who was troubled and weary he knew,
Who’d be glad of a lift, and who needed it too,
On him he would call and see what he could do - Tomorrow.

Each morning he stacked up the letters he’d write - Tomorrow.
And thought of the folks he would fill with delight - Tomorrow.
It was indeed too bad, but he was busy today,
And hadn’t a minute to stop on his way;
More time he would have to give others, he’d say - Tomorrow.

The greatest of workers this man would have been - Tomorrow.
The world would have known him - Tomorrow.
But the fact is he died and faded from view,
And all that he left here when living was through
Was a mountain of things he intended to do – Tomorrow!

Jesus told us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11), because He wants us to live in the moment; in day-tight compartments.

An ocean liner is built so that the captain can, by pressing a button, lower steel doors separating one watertight bulkhead from another. If the hull of the ship is pierced in a disaster, this keeps the ship afloat. “In the voyage of life,” advised Dr. Osler, world renowned physician, “learn how to make doors come down and shut out the yesterdays with all their errors and failures. Learn also to lower another door to shut out the unborn tomorrows so that you can live for this day alone. Then, as you move into the next bulkhead, close doors that will shut out both the past and the future.”

The two greatest sources of worry and fear are the past and the future--remorse over the past and fear of the future--and God's Word forbids worry about either. Paul said, “forget the things that are behind” (Philippians 3:13), and Jesus advises us to, “take no thought for tomorrow.” (Matthew 6:34)

James Dodson wrote a moving book called Final Rounds, in which he talks about the last months of his father's life. They were both avid golfers, and when his father had been diagnosed with a terminal illness James took him to Scotland so they could play golf together at some of the world's most celebrated courses. At one point James's dad asked him about his marriage and family. James's answer was evasive; he was so consumed by his work that there was little time left over. These were the words of a dying father to his son: 'I wish I could slow you both down...The danger of great ambition is that you work so hard, you may some day wake up and find that the things you really wanted, were the things you had all along.'

Even though you’ll always be moving toward another goal or objective, learn to squeeze every ounce of joy out of the present. Don’t let life slip away while you’re waiting for the next big event.