Seize the Day

There is one thing certain in life… each person has a past that brought them to where they are today.  Not everyone realizes this simple fact nor do they embrace and appreciate the importance of allowing such an apparent part of their being to shine through.  For some odd reason, folks want to put away, hide and suppress this part of themselves that make them who they are.  Not that I think we need to stand on our heads, do the Macarena or sing in the streets about long-ago accomplishments, gory pasts or our “previous life” hidden talents, but the mere fact that we accept what we have been dealt would go a long way and probably eliminate some of the uptightness our society seems to be having lately and cut the wait to get into therapy in half.

Admit it, we have all done something on the stupid side somewhere in the past.  I can personally think of about a dozen dubious doings off the top of my head that I fruitfully fulfilled and that doesn’t begin to describe the goings-on of my formative years (which, now that I think about it, I am probably still in the throes of).  The stuff I am talking about is not bad, vindictive or evil, just stuff that happens when the best decision is not always made.  I chalk it up to experience, hoped that I learned something and I didn’t repeat the transgression (too often).  I don’t think anyone can honestly look back and say that they did the right thing all the time.  It just wouldn’t be right.  I have somehow successfully justified in my mind all activity done in the prime of puberty was the “right of passage” and am happy to say I am alive, able to talk about these things today and know I learned something along the way.

I am also convinced that each and every person has done something of which they are truly proud.  Human nature what it is and if humbleness was instilled when one was knee-high to a grasshopper; one does not feel at ease tooting one’s own horn.  But these positive accomplishments, deeds and happy feelings should not be suppressed and pushed back to the furthest confines of memory.  Brought to light, without boasting (which would definitely fall under an Emily Post faux pas), allows others a small window into what shaped you.  Whether your moment came after a successful attempt of an underwater somersault; you mastered one of Beethoven’s symphonies; you married the love or your life or had a soufflé that didn’t fall, carpe diem! Store the success in your vast reservoir of trivia to be pulled out at another time when the reminiscence will bring you back to an earlier, perhaps more fruitful time.

Even if you don’t converse where you came from, what you have done or whom you have done it with to friends and acquaintances, at least be selfish and remember it for yourself.  It probably isn’t too good of an idea to define your whole being by the past but by at least being in accord with it makes the present easier to handle.  We all had to start somewhere to get here and there may have been collision and clatter and bountiful bouquets along the way but the fact is, we are still here willing, able and waiting to seize our next day.

Cynthia A. McClelland, curious observer of the obvious with interpretations of the oddities of daily life.  Mother, wife and lover of the furry, resides in the north Lake Tahoe area.             

Cynthia A. McClelland © 2003-