‘Today’

I have a nephew in-law, a great young man who is handicapped by brain damage, and who in conversation with me constantly asks me about ‘tomorrow.’  I constantly reply to him that we are in ‘today,’ so I steer conversation to talk about ‘today.’  Yet I, too, constantly think about ‘tomorrow,’ the future, the challenge that increasingly looms large.  And then I remind myself that tomorrow will be greatly affected by what goes on today—so I say to myself and to whomever might listen, ‘make the most of it.’  I know that the ultimate outcome and victory of a life well-lived a day at a time will be the greatest reward.

Besides that, "Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength." (Corry Ten Boom)

Then my mind reverts to songs (as it so often does) that express or validate my conclusions. 

 

One of those songs titled Today, which you may remember, was featured on a 33 rpm New Christy Minstrels album I had in my young adulthood. 

   

The first three verses of this song are but sweet persiflage but the fourth verse contributes some substance:  

I can't be contented with yesterday's glory
I can't live on promises winter to spring
Today is my moment, now is my story
I'll laugh and I'll cry and I'll sing

[In double-checking the spelling of ‘persifage’ in the above sentence the dictionary supplied this insightful and contributory example:

     “The time straying toward infidelity and confections and persiflage he withholds by steady faith.”]

In the Christian-music genre another song of the same title, Today, sung by ’33 Miles’ goes this way:

Worry keeps waking me up
Calling me at 3 am
Fear wants to shut me down
Telling me what might happen
Doubt plays with my mind
Trying to twist the truth
All these distractions, beg a reaction,
So here's what I'm gonna do

Right here, right now
I'm living for You and nothing else
For yesterday is history
and tomorrow's gonna write itself
All I got is the moment I'm in
And I don't ever want to waste
This gift, this chance, right here, right now, today

And finally, another song from over a decade ago, One Moment in Time, sung by Whitney Houston still brings a tear to my eye when I think of certain loved ones who are letting the 'todays' of their life slip by:

  

Each day I live, I want to be
A day to give the best of me
I'm only one, but not alone
My finest day is yet unknown

I broke my heart for every gain
To taste the sweet, I faced the pain
I rise and fall, yet through it all
This much remains

I want one moment in time
When I'm more than I thought I could be
When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away
And the answers are all up to me

Give me one moment in time
When I'm racing with destiny
Then in that one moment of time
I will feel, I will feel eternity

I've lived to be the very best
I want it all, no time for less
I've laid the plans, now lay the chance
Here in my hands

You're a winner for a lifetime
If you seize that one moment in time, make it shine

Give me one moment in time
When I'm racing with destiny
Then in that one moment of time
I will be, I will be, I will be free, I will be, I will be free

Writer(s): John Bettis, Albert Hammond
Copyright: Albert Hammond Music, John Bettis Music