How To Stop Worrying and Start Living

I was reading a chapter in the book by Dale Carnegie. I seem to be attracted to books and houses from the 40's. Anyway, imagine, we think the whole self-help movement is new! The first chapter is quite interesting:

"Every day is a new life to a wise man.

"Happy the man,
and happy he alone,
He, who can call to-day his own:
He who, secure within, can say:
"To-morrow, do thy worst, for I have liv'd to-day."

"Those words sound modern, don't they? Yet they were written thirty years before Christ was born, by the Roman poet Horace.

"One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living.
"How strange it is, our little procession of life!" wrote Stephen Leacock. "The child says, 'When I am a big boy.' But what is that? The big boy says, 'When I gor up.' And then, grown up, he says, 'When I get married.' But to be married, what is that after all? The thought changes to 'When I'm able to...' "

And thus, we stop living for today. The infamous AA saying, "One Day At A Time," is actually quite Biblical in nature. Jesus said, "Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." (Matthew 6:34)

In our weekly staff Bible study we had talked about giving 100% each day. You can't give more, and you can't make up for it tomorrow if you give less. That's what this is about. It's about being a good steward of each of your days. Letting bygones be bygones. Not fearing for the future.

Jesus was right: "Each day has enough trouble of it's own."

So, with Horace, I concur: "To-morrow, do thy worst, for I have liv'd to-day." That is, if you can live... really live... in the present, you can say with Horace, "Bring it on!" I've done my best today and I'm ready for more!