Each day stands alone

Each day stands alone. Don’t worry about yesterday. Don’t anticipate tomorrow.

Having diabetes has taught me this.

Each day of blood sugar tests stands alone. Your system reboots each night so you start fresh each day with a wiped slate. Whatever you ate yesterday doesn’t matter anymore, and whatever you might be eating tomorrow can’t be figured in. However much insulin you had to have yesterday has no bearing on how much you might need today. Each day is different and new.

When you think about it, it is not a bad philosophy for life.

Whatever I did yesterday is over and done with. I can’t change it, and if I guilt-trip myself over it, I will just ruin my today. If I owe someone an apology for yesterday, since I can’t change whatever it was I did or said, I might as well take care of it and go on. If I spend too much time ruing yesterday, I won’t do anything, right or wrong, today. Where’s the good in that?

I wasn’t the best mother I could be yesterday. Well I can’t worry about that, I have to be mom today, too. I can’t change yesterday. I will just have to try harder today.

What if I ate a whole bag of chips yesterday? It wouldn’t have made me feel good, but I did it and it is done, I can’t un-eat it. So, I won’t do that today. Today I will eat the right things in the right proportions and go forward. Feeling guilty today about what I ate yesterday will not help me keep on my diet, it will just help to convince me that I can’t do this anyway. “See, look what happened yesterday, obviously I am not capable of doing this.”

Defeat all over the place.

Don’t believe if you didn’t do it yesterday, you can’t do it today. We are called to learn and make progress. Not to overlook, but to forgive and let go of the sins of the past. This means forgiving ourselves as well as those around us. Forgiving ourselves is actually harder.

Understand, I’m not saying we shouldn’t learn from yesterday. There are lessons in our yesterdays we need to take to heart, but don’t let yesterday steal the best of you.

Tomorrow can be planned for and looked forward to, but it is dangerous to look for disaster there. That is a sure way to paralyze today. Give today your full attention, make today your focus, and tomorrow will take care of itself. It is a new day full of possibilities, so take advantage of it in the morning.

Yesterday and tomorrow can so easily rob me of my today if I let them.