"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."
American Writer & Poet
1803 - 1882
Sometimes we let our worries, doubts and fears control us. There is nothing we can do to change yesterday and the things that happened. Yes, we may alter the consequences by apologizing, but the action is still there. Worry is creative imagination. We create all kinds of scenes and stories in our minds that are not based in reality.
My mother was a worry wart. She was always dwelling on something that happened or was caught up in what she thought was going to happen. And she seemed to get worse with age. She and my father had a big fight on the morning he died of a heart attack. He had been sick and she did not want him to go to work. Being the stubborn person he was, he went anyway and died on the job. My mother never forgave herself. During the nine years after my dad died, she worried about what happened and punished herself.
So, of course, some of this worrying behavior rubbed off on me and there have been days when I struggled to overcome it. But the older I have grown, the less I worry. I have learned to accept what happens and to forgive myself. But every now and then, worry will raise it's silly head and bite me.
Are you a worrier? Does your imagination run wild? Have you learned to forgive yourself when you make a mistake? Take heed of Emerson's valuable advice: Begin each day anew!
"I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers."
