Sunday, October 14th, 2018.
It was a day like any other day, I suppose. The 287th day of the year. Just twenty four
hours long or 1,440 minutes or 86,400 seconds, if you are counting. In these parts it was a typical autumn day, a
bit breezy, with a bright blue sky and then
later temps dropping to a chilly 41 degrees as the sun went down and the
sliver of an orange moon rose in the sky.
Do you remember what that one day was like for you?
What you did? What you ate? The music you listened to in the
car, the expression on your face in the mirror as you shaved, the feel of a
warm embrace as your kid hugged you, the softness of your elderly parent's
cheek as you kissed them in welcome for another Sunday visit?
Remember? Maybe. Maybe not. Probably not.
For most humans: we have so many days to live that it can be
difficult, if not impossible, to recall the minute and mundane, the beautiful
and the boring moments of just one day out of so many. Which if you think about
it is kind of sad. Because the truth is
that a day, say like last Sunday: it never, ever happened before and it will
never, ever happen again, so to let it slip by unnoticed, to banish it to
memory, never to be retrieved, is a lost opportunity, a forgotten blessing, even.
There are rare folks who actually remember every single day,
almost every single moment, in life. These souls have hyperthymesia, the ability to recall much of their lives in very specific
detail. In ten years ask them about last Sunday the 14th and they will tell you
what the stranger sitting across them on the subway was wearing.
I don't think I want to recall that much experience and yet I do wish and pray I could be more
conscious, more alive to and wide awake to, the precious and miraculous gift
that is every sun up and sun down, every turn of the daily calendar page. I
want to live by the wise words of the ancient author who declared, "This
is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!"
So--what was last Sunday, October 14, 2018, like for you?
Try and recall, call it back. Guaranteed that on that one day you were blessed
somehow. You were immersed in some experience that changed you: for the good,
for the better, for sure.
Every day does change the universe, change us.
So now I do remember that one day...the wide open smile
and enveloping arms of an enthusiastic five year old boy who wrapped himself around
my legs as I finished up worship. He just
wanted to say "HI!". I
remember going to the Patriots game and being incredibly cold but so excited
and happy: to watch a nail biting, nerve wracking game with my brother and four
cousins, a rare gathering, then to finally get home at one a.m., so exhausted
and so thankful. It was a day to put up
on the shelf and then take down later and remember with deep thankfulness.
And there is this day too.
This Monday, now the 15th of October. A raw and cold and rainy day. A
smoky cup of coffee to drink by my side and another essay to write about life,
about this one day. The mistake I make
is to somehow see this more "everyday" day as disposable or
forgettable or something to quickly move on from because, well, it is just
another day. Right?
But here's the truth. This day, that day, each day, today, all
days: these are not just any days. These are instead days that will only happen
once in a long string of tens of thousands of days that we all, incredibly, actually
get to live. Get to breathe in and breathe out.
Get to watch our kids grow up, and feel ourselves grow older and witness
the world rock and roll with so much change and so much challenge and so much
energy.
We get to experience all of it, every single minute.
So thank you God: for October 14th, 2018. The 15th too. Let me rejoice and be glad in it. Let us all take this one day too, whatever
the date, and then use it up and use it well, every last second. Because when it is gone, it is gone.
All that really matters is...today.
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