You Never Know

Seize the day, put no trust in tomorrow.

- Horace

I was surfing the Internet a few weeks ago and I found this quote. It immediately struck a chord with me so I copied it down. It is not an entirely original phrase, because when it is boiled down to the raw ideas that motivate the phrase, it tells us of the sacredness as well as the briefness of life itself. I believe that this idea has been floating around since life itself started, and the reality set in of how limited of a time we have on this earth.

This past year has been quite an eyeopening time for me, as I have started to practice introspection quite a bit. I have learned so much about myself and discovered areas of my personality and self that I never brought to light before. From this I have found that I have been pretty careless with my time in the past 19 years of life. I have spent a lot of time being anxious, being sad, taking foolish risks that could have had a detrimental effect on my health. I basically took every day as if it was owed to me and if I wanted to waste it away being sad and angry at the world, so be it. This realization has hit me hard again and again, like running at a wall and getting up and hitting it head on again. As I have come to realize that I continually fall into the same pattern, I do feel that this realization has allowed me to try and veer from the pattern slightly, bit by bit.

So thoughts have been running crazy through my head since I have realized that I have been living in a habituated pattern of anguish and sadness for many of my days. I have begun to turn my life around, trying to live more freely from the self-induced confines that I have put myself under. So the point of my writing is to establish a written record of the beginning of a new phase in my life. Hopefully I can stick with it. I believe I can, because if I falter I know that I have a strong support system of people who will encourage me to keep at it. And for that, I am thankful.

Everyday should be a good day to die. Every minute should be spent sparingly, never taken for granted. Live in the moment because the present is the only thing that is really certain. The future is relative. Today is yesterday's tomorrow, yesterday's future. If you spend your time planning or worrying about the future, you miss what is happening now. This very second. Not to say that planning or worrying don't have their place, but when they overtake your life to the degree that you lose your days, you need to take a step back and try to reevaluate.

If you died at the end of the year, the month, tomorrow or in the next breath, would you have regrets about how you lived your life? I'm trying to live without too many regrets, worrying about worthless things. I need to let the chips fall where they may, leave the myth of perfection alone, and see it for what it is, an unattainable, yet unwanted goal. I should let my imperfections and mistakes that I make, not define me, but help build me into a better person.

Strive for peace of mind, body, and soul because you never know...