Dead is yesterday, unborn is tomorrow,
why fret about them if today be sweet?
- Omar Khaiyyam (1048-1131) Persian,
astronomer, philosopher, poet in
'Rubaiyat'
“Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday”
- Anonymous
“You can't change the past, but you can
ruin the present by worrying about the future”
- Anonymous
There comes a time in your life when you realize who will
always matter, who does matter, and who never did. So don’t worry about people from your past;
there’s a reason why they didn’t make it to your future.”
– Anonymous
Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow,
it only saps today of its joy.
-Leo Buscaglia (1924-1998 American author
and motivational speaker
The greatest mistake you can make in life
is to be continually fearing you will make one.
- Elbert Hubbard, American writer
(1856-1915) in The Note Book (1927)
A hundred load of worry will not pay an
ounce of debt.
- George
Herbert, Welsh poet (1593-1633)
There are two days in
the week about which I never worry… Yesterday and tomorrow.
- Robert Jones Burdette, American humorist
(1844-1914).
Don't worry about the world coming to an
end today. It's already tomorrow
in Australia.
- Charles M. Schulz US cartoonist (1922 -
2000)
If I had my
life to live over, I would perhaps have more actual troubles but I'd have fewer
imaginary ones.
-Don Herold American humorist (1889-1966).
“The past is history, tomorrow’s a mystery, so today is all
we have. It’s a GIFT, that’s why it’s called the PRESENT.”
-Bil Keane, American cartoonist (1922-2011)
In 2006, my then boss was due for promotion. There was ambiguity
over the dates of the interview and the same was getting prolonged. At a stage,
it was clear that the only certainty about the interview was that it would
continue to be uncertain. While a lot of prospective interviewees had tension
writ large on their faces, my boss was calm and his face belied any tension, if
there was any. However there did not seem to be any. I asked him as to how he
was able to not think of the impending interview whereas his colleagues were
thinking only of it. What he said was -
"Tomorrow is uncertain. Let me cross the bridge when it comes. Why worry
about it today?"
A very poignant message. Can we carry on life without
thinking of yesterday or tomorrow? I seem to think only of yesterday and
tomorrow that I fail to live in the present. Almost all the time!
Let
us talk about these two days. First, Yesterday. Can you change the past?
Yesterday is gone…forever. None of us can bring it back again. All the money in
this world cannot bring back yesterday. The calendar will still show today. All
our actions of yesterday have been committed and cannot be undone. We cannot
take back what we said. We can apologise perhaps, but it is not going to take
back what we say. My father tells me all the time to be careful of the words I use - simply because one cannot take them back. It has happened.
But we can learn lessons from those mistakes and not repeat them. Take the
sweetest memories of the past and move on. Though we cannot just switch off and
stop thinking of yesterday, we should not get embroiled in its thoughts.
Life
does not have an "UNDO" button
like Microsoft Office., though many of us (I, for one - God, please give me
one!) would want it to exist. There were people, situations, things, events,
actions, words that I feel I should not have been part of but was. Assume that the
"UNDO" button exists. Still,
will life be perfect? No. Once you use the undo button, you will want to use it
over and over again. The reason is that satisfaction is something unknown to
man.
Tomorrow!
Ah, about tomorrow, the less said, the better. Atleast you lived yesterday, were part of it. You don't even know whether you
will be there tomorrow! Isn't it? We do not know what will happen the next
moment. Tomorrow is like the other side of the moon. You will never see it.
What’s going to happen will happen whether we worry about it or not. Actually,
we do not have any stake in tomorrow! We need to take it as it comes. It may
bring adversity or happiness, which we do not know today.
Assume
you have to fight Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Or you have to fight Today.
Which fight will you win? You will never win a fight against Yesterday and
Tomorrow. Today, yes, you can. Dump the bitterness of yesterday as well as the
fear of tomorrow and today will be sweet.
The first person who has to read this
post over and over, comprehend and practise it is its writer!
6 comments:
Nice one Pradeep...in line with the Quote "live the present", which is literally easy to say!
When we are in the "coarser pleasure of boyish days", we tend to ignore what is said. Realisation comes with experience, when you are able to hear the "still, sad music of humanity".
Every day passes as a milestone in our journey from cradle to grave.In that are we following the trodden path or the untrodden one. Both are good in their own ways. Trodden paths of righteousness, of humility, of humaneness.... untrodden paths of doing something different, for the good of someone....
whichever path one takes, the destination is the same.
Not to worry about the destination, one should aim to make the journey enjoyable, memorable.
well if wishes were flowers, the whole world would have been a beautiful garden.. literally heaven on earth..
Thanks bala
Hari Sir, comments can't get more poetic than the post! :)
Well said Pradeep.
“Yesterday is a cancelled cheque; tomorrow is a promissory note; today is the only cash you have - so spend it wisely. ” - Kay Lyons
Anne Glen Lewis
That is indeed a very nice quote, Anne! How true!
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