Seize the Day

All Fired Up 

“Yesterday is ashes, tomorrow wood. Only today does the fire burn brightly.
”

— Eskimo proverb

“This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.
”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today is all you have. The past is behind you and the future is unknown. This moment is where life is lived, not in yesterday or tomorrow. Each day offers opportunities that will never come again. Time is one of your most valuable, non-renewable resources. When you relax into God’s grace, you will discover that every day can be a good day. 

Take time to set your priorities. Instead of frantic multi-tasking or wasting time on non-essentials, focus on what is most important and meaningful to you. Your choices and decisions will color not only this day, but also cast their shadows on coming days. Remember, too, that by not making a choice, you are really making a choice, and that choice always has unforeseen consequences.

“Real generosity toward the future consists in giving all to what is present.”

— Albert Camus

Heart of Fire 

Procrastination, putting off till tomorrow what should be done today, steals precious opportunities. Procrastination produces guilt because you know you should do something but you don’t. Instead, choose to value your time by doing what needs to be done right now, and live fully in each moment.

Flaunt Your Colors 

This moment is all you have. Yesterday is a memory and tomorrow is only a dream, but today is the treasure you own right now. Spend the treasure of your time wisely and you will learn to make every day a good day, no matter what the day may bring.  Be aware that there are hidden depths and dimensions in each day, unique to that day. Yes, there will be other opportunities on other days, but this day lived well will reward you with its own special joys.

Life has its ups and downs. We love the up times, but oh, how we hate the down times. After many disappointments and difficult times, it’s sometimes hard to believe for the best. We become cynical and jaded, ashamed to be vulnerable and childlike, afraid that our hopes and dreams are foolish in the “real world” that often seems to reward cold calculation. Yet when we close our hearts to optimism and faith, we close the door on making our dreams come true in this world. 

You can choose to face the day with an optimistic attitude. Optimism is a learned attitude of faith.  Faith is a choice, not an argument. It is an inner conviction, an unshakable assurance. You make a decision to choose optimism, and to make the most of whatever you have been given to work with. Recognizing that yesterday is a dream and tomorrow is a hope, you learn to focus your energies on what is possible here and now. 

Focusing on the negatives in any situation is counterproductive. You concentrate at what’s wrong, and soon that’s the only thing you can see. Negative thoughts that hold us back include: I can’t. I won’t. That’s a problem. It’s not fair. It won’t work. Stupid. Impossible. Hopeless. It’s too hard. I’m not good enough. What a drag. But we never did it that way before. 

Positive thoughts help us make positive choices.  Choose to replace negative patterns with positive, empowering thoughts like: I can. It’s possible. I’ll give it a try. Let’s go. Yes. I will. It will work. I am able to do this. It will be fun.

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”

— Helen Keller

Here Today and Gone Tomorrow 

Each moment is a gift if you have the eyes to see and the heart to appreciate it. The perfect gift is the present, the here and now. You do not know what will happen tomorrow and you cannot change what happened in the past, but this moment offers the gift of choosing what you will do right now. Will you embrace the present with gratitude and optimism?

• Set a simple goal for today and achieve that goal. Reward yourself with a small pleasure when you achieve the goal.

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”

— Dale Carnegie

Red Bravado 

“To bring to the place where you live only the best and most beautiful—what a plan for life!”

— Howard Thurman

Make a Statement 

Dare to Live

Compared to what we ought to be, we are half awake.
— William James

I have been formatting The Art of Encouragement into an e-book for publication on Smashwords (soon to be available). I wrote the book in 2002, but it still speaks to me today. In fact, I’m still working on applying the wisdom from its pages. When I write, I write more wisely than I know at the time I’m writing. As I look back on my work, I see that there was a sure thread of insight weaving through my work that anticipated my own spiritual growth. 

I also remember that when I was writing The Art of Encouragement, I was struggling with the limitations of dogma and doctrine, trying to find my way through the labyrinth of questions and changes and challenges to old belief systems. Funny, I think we are all going through this collectively now. The world I knew then is not the world I know now. The rules I was trying so hard to follow back then are now broken, discarded, or have morphed into something less legalistic and more about living from the heart. 

Struggling with my own doubts and fears, wrestling with the realities of another era, I am reminded again to stay true to my own vision, and to be kind and forgiving to others, knowing that we are all in the process of evolving to higher levels of consciousness and more expansive ideas of what the world is meant to be. 

This excerpt from The Art of Encouragement spoke to my heart today:

Adventure can be an end in itself. Self-discovery is the secret ingredient that fuels daring.
— Grace Lichtenstein

Do not close yourself off from life because of fear. Do not build walls of expectations or dictate terms for who, what, how, and when the Universe will deliver. Expect miracles and see miracles, even in the simple, mundane round of life. Love each moment as it comes. Embrace it fully. Immerse yourself in this moment, this reality. Be aware. Be yourself. Be brave and dare to live from the very center of your being. 


When you have a choice between following your heart or following your head, always listen to your heart first. Know that you are not alone. The still, small voice speaks when you are willing to listen. You are surrounded by the love of the Universe; you are guided by God; you are ministered to by His angels, watched over by saints and ancestors. Embrace your life today. Live in the music and dance to the rhythm of love. Dare to live with your whole heart, every single day of your life.

Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
— Oliver Wendell Holmes

When one does not love too much, one does not love enough.
— Blaise Pascal

Dare to be naïve.
— R. Buckminster Fuller

The only real security is not insurance or money or a job, not a house and furniture paid for, or a retirement fund, and never is it another person. It is the skill and humor and courage within, the ability to build your own fires and find your own peace.
— Audrey Sutherland

People generally think that it is the world, the environment, external relationships, which stand in one’s way, in the way of one’s good fortune. . . . and at the bottom is always man himself that stands in his own way.
— Søren Kierkegaard

There is no going alone on a journey. Whether one explores strange lands or Main Street or one’s own backyard, always invisible traveling companions are close by: the giants and pygmies of memory, of belief, pulling you this way and that, not letting you see the world life-size but insisting that you measure it by their own height and weight.
— Lillian Smith

Life begets life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.
— Sarah Bernhardt

You are not living by human laws but by divine laws. Expect miracles and see them take place. Hold ever before you the thought of prosperity and abundance, and know that doing so sets in motion forces that will bring it into being.
— Eileen Caddy

Yesterday I dared to struggle. Today I dare to win.
— Bernadette Devlin

No one has ever seen God. Yet if we love one another God dwells in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.
I John 4:12 (NAB)

It is not who you are or what you have been that God sees with His all-merciful eyes, but what you desire to be.
— The Cloud of Unknowing (c. 1375)

Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!
— Romans 15:13 (The Message)


Affirmative prayer

O God, who hast prepared for those who love thee such good things as pass understanding: Pour into our hearts such love toward thee, that we, loving thee in all things and above all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire.
— The Book of Common Prayer

Introducing an inspiring friend: 

I met a wonderful musician a few months ago. He performed a stirring anthem, We Are One, and had us all singing along. Kevin Reid inspires people with his joyful enthusiasm, all-embracing love, and playful humor. As a songwriter and music producer, his songs reflect his experiential awareness of the deeper levels of being and becoming, while encouraging individual, national and global transformation to greater unity, love and understanding.

The recording We Are One took nearly two years to complete The production involved 90 coast-to-coast recording sessions to include the voices and talents of a diverse group of over 200 professional artists and everyday people. It’s a global gift of love. 

Go to http://www.aworldanthem.org/index.html to hear the song and read the story behind its creation.