Here on the cusp of Summer . . which I always mark as the season which begins with Memorial Day, persists through the 4th of July and sort of ends (although not officially on the calendar or even by temperature) with Labor Day . . I wonder how it can be that this year is already almost half over? Soon it will be Mother’s Day, then Memorial Day; there’ll be talk of vacations and the thrush of Summer activities like picnics and 4th of July fireworks festivals. There will also be talk of swimming pools, lakes, oceans, suntans, sunburns, adventures and back to school. Everything seems to slow down and life sets itself upon a new pace of easy and breezy. But even in that altered pace, life goes on!  

If we aren’t stopping to mark and to make each day we are alive special in some way, all we’ll be able to see is the multitude of x’s we make as we cross off our precious days with no recollection of having truly lived them! And live them we should! Each day is ours to toil and be busy, with gratitude and a sense of purpose; or to toil and fill it just for the sake of awaiting expectantly and hopefully some other day more than this very one. If we toil hastily, hurriedly and with our hopes waiting for another day, we might spend our precious days into waste. How many Summer seasons pass so quickly because we make plans for months in advance, only to wait upon our special plans so eagerly, that we miss enjoying the days leading towards them? How many parents dread the end of school, wishing for school to restart just so that their lives are made simpler again? Such a shame we cannot learn to give equal precious weight to every day we’re given, as none is promised but the one we’re living!  

This day matters, this one counts most, this one is meaningful and this one is all you truly have. Before you mark it as over and done on the calendar, make it something which matters! Don’t wish your life away waiting on some better day, or expect better days ahead rather than making this one your best so far!