Enjoy Life "in the now," It has an expiration date!

Enjoy life now... It has an expiration date!
Living in the “now” is what living is all about. What has gone before is gone forever, unless we choose to keep on re-living it in our faulty memories. What is yet to come, always hinges on “possibilities.” We can’t live today on what is past, good, bad or questionable. We can’t live today on what may or may not happen in the coming days or our possible future predicaments.

I am writing today’s opinion piece to myself. I am writing this for myself. So, if anyone takes the time to read it, know it is a simple statement of what I need to tell myself today (and truthfully, every day).
It is definitely true that the “now,” this day, this hour, this moment is all I have. I try to remind myself that it should be lived to the fullest, enjoyed with every breath.

All the experts keep telling me, “Don’t clutter up your life with what could have been.” “Don’t lose your only ‘today’ worrying about what might be around the corner.”

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” So said Pulitzer Prize recipient Annie Dillard. Everyday there are ‘moments’ that make the day a joy, or at least pleasurable. The ‘now’ moments are undoubtedly our most valuable commodity.

Wise old gurus stress ‘time’ as the greatest of our possessions. Many of the Bible’s parables and stories urge the wise use of time. Recognizing that the time-now-in-our-hands is all we have --- and it can be a liberating force evolving into a “life lived at its fullest.”

Time is like studying a foreign language – no matter how hard I study, if I do use the language, I lose it. Time is a gift to be appreciated, even treasured or cherished, otherwise I lose it. “Cherish the moment” may sound too sentimental or preachy, but it sure beats just “spending” time or even worse, “killing” time. Today is too valuable for me to let slip away on whims, grudges, resentments, or slights encountered along life’s way.

Al Capp, the creator of one of my all-time favorite comic strips, Li’l Abner, lost his left leg at the age of nine. He wrote a memoir with the up-beat, positive title: “My Well Balanced Life On A Wooden Leg.” He didn’t let the loss of a leg ruin the rest of his days. His cheerful autobiographical essays attest to his living in the “now.”

So, I am saying to myself, enjoy life “now”... right here and now! For life has an expiration date!