Today— All Good and Great Things Are Possible.

Whatever is to come out of today exists in today. The future is not a revolution but an evolution. Today is the child and heir of yesterday; tomorrow will be the child and heir of today.

A day, what is it? A space of light between two mountain walls of darkness. Wonderful and rich, far beyond the line of our usual appreciation, is the gift of a day. Write it on your hearts today will be a great day and it will be.

Today-time present! This is really all we can call our own. Yesterday is like a closed book. Its record is finished. The mill cannot grind with the water that is past, so our work cannot be done with the strength and opportunities of yesterday. Tomorrow. You never know. It may never come!

Today’s Work.

Riches may fly away, fame may vanish, but duty never ceases. This saves our lives from most of its perplexities. Are we happy? Let not our felicity make us falter in the performance of a single duty, for on these duties that happiness itself depends. Are we unhappy? Strenuously try not to grieve over the bitterness, for action is the surest of solaces. In every case, we cannot do better than obey the brave old rule, “Do the next thing.”

In the life of today are the results of the labor and struggle of all the yesterdays. No day is poor and commonplace. Every day is full of marvel and joy. Every day has its comedies and tragedies. Genius does not invent, it discovers and interprets.

Who has the pleasant, consciousness of being useful? The worker. Who stores up the rich memories of many things done? The worker. Who sleeps sweetly? The worker. Who relishes his food more than the epicure? The hard worker. Who enjoys leisure? Those who use time so industriously that they have earned a right to be idle. Who can understand the full measure of blessing in a day? Those who have so earnestly pursued its opportunities that its minutes are to them as gems, and its hours as diamonds.

There is great work yet to be done on this planet, continents to be reclaimed, oceans to be navigated, acres of brains to be tilled.

Today’s Opportunities.

Each day has not only its own immediate gifts but also its immediate opportunities. Pluck the blossom of today. Opportunity is the flower of time, and as the stalk may remain when the flower is cut off, so time may remain with us when an opportunity is gone. To those who walk through the world with open eyes every day reveals something beautiful.

An opportunity has hair in front. Behind it is bald. If you seize it by the forelock, you may hold it, but if suffered to escape, you will never catch it again.

We are putting yesterday to its noblest use when we are using its experience to make the life of today better. We are preparing for tomorrow in the truest way when we are striving with all our might to be faithful to the opportunity of today. 

Today’s Time.
What shall we say of them who waste what no gold can buy? Time is the most precious thing in the world. Use time while you have it, for by and by there will be no more present time. A moment once lost, is lost forever. It is easier to find hot water under cold ice than to find a lost moment. Infinite results depend upon what we do with our time. The lazy waste the most precious commodity in this world. The consequences of failure are so supremely tragic, and the tendency to procrastination so universal, that action is demanded now, today. There is no better time than now to do.

Today’s Challenges.

Every day has its own challenges. These must be met with patient cheerfulness, and each problem taken care of as it comes. To add to the difficulties and troubles of the present day by worrying about what tomorrow might bring will not ease the situation confronting you now. To restrict all care to the moment when it begins to nag is to conquer it absolutely.

How much good is omitted, how many evils caused, how many duties neglected, how many good works destroyed, how many truths suppressed by those timorous forecasts of what may happen and those apprehensions concerning the future!

Do your work today with the strength you used to expend in carrying troubles which you borrowed from the future. Our task today is not to have the strength needed for tomorrow’s burdens.

Today is all we have.
There may never be a tomorrow for any of us. Let us look at our life from this point of view, not gloomily, or remorsefully, but as sensible men and women who can look at the truth in the face.

There are those who live heedlessly absorbed in pleasure without any definite aim or aspiration, free from anxiety because they are free from all serious thoughts. There are also those who are careless for the morrow because they are careful for today.

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