Live One Day at a Time.

Now that Scottie has been home for a while she has really rallied. She has felt very good, and will begin to return to work today for a partial day. She has doctor's appointments most every day this week and we hope she will be starting on the trial treatment program soon.

The title above "Live One Day at a Time" is a mantra we all hear and have probably passed on as sage advise to family or friends who are going through tough times. During these past few years Scottie and I have discovered the truth of these words. We truly do live one day at a time. And what that means is: if today is a good day, don't ruin it by worrying about what may happen tomorrow. Good days are precious gifts, celebrate every minute of them by filling them with as much love and laughter as you can.
You have heard the saying "Live each day as though it were your last". I don't care for that notion. I prefer a different approach: "Live each day as you would like to live forever." That is how we approach each good day, we live it and enjoy it as if it would last forever--good days are a fore taste of, and a promise of, eternity.
There are bad days, and when they come you have to remember they are just ONE day also. Surround the things that trouble you on those days with as much love as you can and then just hang on. Here is where the love and prayers of all of you become so powerful. That is the love we draw on that surrounds us and helps us isolate the things that trouble us and enable us to be truly thankful even on the worst of days. This is the mystery of life that we proclaim as we begin every Eucharist with the words: "Lift up Your Hearts. We lift them to the Lord. Let us give Thanks to the Lord our God...It is right and a good and joyful thing ALWAYS and EVERYWHERE to give thanks to you Father Almighty..." Giving thanks to God always and everywhere is how we celebrate the good days, and it is how we triumph over the bad days.

The truth is most of our days, and most of your days, are "good days", they are true gifts from God, samples of eternity given to be celebrated with love and laughter, yet all to often we find ways to ruin too many of them with worry and anxiety over things, most of which will never happen anyway. A good friend told me once: "All my life I have had problems and most of them never happened. " How wise that is. Most of the things we worry about, that ruin our good days and take away time and energy that could have been spent in love and laughter, in the end never even happen anyway.

I truly believe, and my experience has affirmed over and over again, that the key to living one day at a time is BEING THANKFUL AT ALL TIMES AND IN ALL PLACES. Being truly thankful and expressing that in our hourly (not just daily) prayers enables us to celebrate the good days and know the power that raises up on the bad days.

Every day, the good ones and the bad ones, are gifts filled with the mystery of the Giver. We enter into the mystery of the Giver by giving thanks as all times, in all places, for all gifts.
Thankfully yours,
Fr. Glenn