Following is a Day 10 Excerpt from my book “The Sigh of Time.” There are 366 daily reflections to help you to think about time and its impact on your life. It is available on Amazon Kindle for the bargain price of 4.99 cents. Fifty Percent of all my royalties on this book will go to KIVA. Amazon Books.
Here is one of the most useful thoughts about time that I have ever heard:
“Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all things will be given to you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” – Matthew 6:25, 33-34
It does not matter whether you are Christian, Muslim, Jewish or even an atheist. The above reflection helps us to put our life in perspective. We worry, worry, and worry about things that we cannot control.
Another thought about time that I always find useful is from the Alcoholics Anonymous book: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” – The Serenity Prayer of AA. What do both thoughts tell you about time and about life? They are asking us if we are too concerned with the future or the past to live a good life today.
Do you worry about things before they happen? Are you a worrywart? Are you trying so hard to control life to prevent anything bad happening that you have no room for the good to happen? What if you lived your life more in the present? Do you really know what you can control and what you cannot control? How can you get more balance and start living more in the present/? Would you be happier if you could?
Aging Capriciously 
Jan 09, 2020 @ 18:46:01
Your biblical quote comes with a fair bit of baggage though. Jerusalem in the first century CE was awash in “prophets” proclaiming the imminent “end of the world”. If Jesus actually existed, which includes major assumptions, he was another of these “the end is nigh” chaps. They all actually thought judgement day was a week away. Hence the strange and unethical ideas about “pay no heed to the morrow”, “turn your back on your family and friends” and “observe the birds of the air”. The reason why christians…..and everybody else…..patently ignore this weirdness is that they aren’t part of a very backward belief system. I would suggest those that don’t pay heed fail themselves, their family and friends, their tribe and their planet. The religious are currently batting 0.000 on predictions about the end of the world. Their ignorance about reality is often quite dismaying…ideology is always blinding, even if it is comforting emotionally. Surely stress must come, as we simply must plan for the morrow? You’d be a right loon if you didn’t! Over-stressing of course doesn’t serve. It can harm you. I always go back to a quote I read first from Martina Navratilova….”stress is a privilege “. I’ve always found that oddly comforting!!
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Jan 11, 2020 @ 08:32:53
Hi Vic, I love your ability to see the cons or to look critically at things rather than to just take them at face value. I see your points. For every saying “Haste makes waste” there is a counter “He who hesitates is lost.” Thus, for every yin, there is a yang. I think that is what critical thinking must be about and we need to have our students exhibit such thinking. Perhaps we would have less dictators in the world and less war and violence if people had more critical thinking. I suppose I will have to get rid of “eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow I may die” and get out my long-term strategic planning book? How long a forecast do you think I should make? I was 73 in September, do you think forty years would be too long? Your friend John 🙂
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Jan 11, 2020 @ 18:33:16
I didn’t mean to sound to earnest, but much of what you write triggers Long threads of strangely interconnected thoughts in me. I’m 62, still planning for a medically uncertain future. And at 73, you look to me that your own planning seems to have been pretty clever. Hence I’m hoping your stress levels allow you all the “eat, drink and be merry” moments your heart desires!! I retire in 9 months, 19 days. I’m still managing logistics, but my mind is easing off. I’ve made good provisions for my loved ones, and have the resources to do a little adventuring. Got rid of real estate because it was shackling me psychologically. I take more delight in the everyday. I read ever more widely, with better understanding. Learnt to engineer my own stress…..how’s that for privilege?
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