Today Is A Gift

When life itself begins to feel empty, stale and oppressive the fundamental reason is that we have lost sight of all that is good in life and zeroed in on our challenges and unfulfilled expectations. If we would learn to shift our attention, to remember and cherish all the wonderful things in life, and at the same time practice to accept the inevitable realities and seek to understand what lessons life is trying to teach us through them, we would start to live in a whole new reality.

Today as I thought of something in my life for which I felt grateful, I came to pay attention to the gift of life itself. I'm alive! Today is an amazing gift, something to be treasured and celebrated over and above everything else. As the great master Oogway put it, There is a saying: Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called "the present."

How often I tend to spoil the gift of life by filling my days with fear, anxiety and frustration, when I have an equal chance to fill it with gratitude, kindness and joy. Today is a chance for me to learn to be more loving, patient, compassionate... to learn the true art of living. Today is a new beginning, bringing new opportunities. I don't have to remain a prisoner of my past! I can make new and better choices, take steps forward, make things otherwise and live a better life.

Carpe diem! Seize the day, friends, make your lives extraordinary!