"We seem to be going through a period of nostalgia, and everyone seems to think yesterday was better than today. I don't think it was, and I would advise you not to wait ten years before admitting today was great. If you're hung up on nostalgia, pretend today is yesterday and just go out and have one hell of a time. "

~Art Buchwald

I, for one, think this is an incredibly kick ass quote and entirely too true. It's so easy to get caught up in the little things, the superficial crap going on day to day, and miss out completely on all the special moments that make up our day. And then .. .years from now, we wonder where time went and miss what we had. So backwards, so silly.

Tonight, my son flipped a blanket around, catching a semi-full glass of red wine and knocking it over. It shattered into a bunch of little pieces, and splayed red wine all over our area carpet rug - the one we'd just had cleaned. Does it matter in the big picture of life? Not really. I cleaned up the shards of glass, sopped up the red wine, explained what an "accident" was to my three-year-old, and moved on with our night.

I'm quite sure my girlfriend's mother wasn't lying on her death bed last week wishing that she'd stewed more over the little issues in life: what kind of car she had or hadn't, what she did or didn't have, what group of friends she was in or out with. She likely didn't brood over relationships that hadn't worked out.

In her obituary, it mentioned how much she loved her grandchildren, how watching them splash in the pool and ride tricycles in her driveway made her the happiest. She had three weeks to live and treasured every day. We ought to be doing the same, and not all of us do. What would you do, knowing you had only three weeks to live? And really, why aren't we doing those things now?

I need reminded now and then about living in the moment. I get caught up trying to get from Point A to Point M and missing all of the sweet things happening in the middle. I'm learning to live in the Now. It's not such a bad place to be.

Happy Weekend. Enjoy it -really!!

Labels: great quote, life is too short, the big picture