Dear friends,
It is important that we live our lives in the present,
Concentrating on what we can do now and making reasonable plans for what we might do in the future.
Yes,
We can learn lessons from the mistakes of the past and it is useful to remember these mistakes and not repeat them.
But it's not a good idea to spend our days excessively reminiscing on the past,
Reliving the good moments and regretting the bad.
Now and again the question is put to us,
What if you had your life to live over?
There is a love song that you might have come across.
It includes this line,
I would still do the same things again.
Now I imagine that,
Apart from our wish to fall in love with the same person again,
Most of us would do things much differently if we had a chance.
There is some dispute about the originality of the quote that follows but generally it's credited to Nadine Steyr and it gives us some interesting food for thought.
The title,
If I had my life to live over,
I'd pick more daisies.
If I had my life to live over,
I'd dare to make more mistakes next time.
I'd relax.
I would limber up.
I would be zillier than I have been this trip.
I would take fewer things seriously.
I would take more chances.
I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers.
I would eat more ice cream and less beans.
I would perhaps have more actual troubles but I'd have fewer imaginary ones.
You see,
I'm one of those people who lived sensibly and sanely,
Hour after hour,
Day after day.
Oh,
I've had my moments.
And if I had to do it over again,
I'd have more of them.
In fact,
I'd try to have nothing else,
Just moments,
One after another,
Instead of living so many years ahead of each day.
I've been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer,
A hot water bottle,
A raincoat and a parachute.
If I had to do it again,
I would travel lighter than I have.
If I had my life to live over,
I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall.
I would go to more dances.
I would ride more merry-go-rounds.
I would pick more daisies.
Words there attributed to Nadine Stair.
And as for you,
What would you do if you had your life to live over?
Let's pause for just a minute to allow some time for thought about this.
Welcome back.
Now if you have had some ideas as to how you would do things differently,
Remember you can.
You are still alive.
The future is in your hands.
Take a note of one or two of these ideas.
The things left undone because of fear,
The things you would wish to do someday,
But where you are still waiting for the right day to come.
You must have come across the well-worn saying,
Today is the first day of the rest of your life.
Yes,
It is.
Oh,
Of course,
Take reasonable precautions.
Don't swim out of your depth.
Look up and down and up and down again before crossing the road.
Keep within the speed limit.
But as for perfectionism and the fear of the new,
Leave them aside and put more life into your living.
We miss so much through fear of breaking out of our shell,
The fear of breaking new ground,
The fear of meeting new people,
The fear of trying something new.
We all miss out.
I have done it and I'm sure you have done it too.
I hope we will all do things a little differently.
Now that we have had this time to stop and ask ourselves,
What if you had your life to live over?
What if you were to begin again?
Try something new,
Turn over a new leaf.
The good news is that we have the capacity to begin again.
Every single day that dawns is our opportunity.
So how about starting to live that postponed life,
Beginning anew today?
