I think some of the worst phrases around today are:
- Someday I’ll do that
- Tomorrow I’ll have more time
- Things will be better next week
- When I get around to it
- When things slow down
Tomorrow is a concept, so is someday. They don’t actually exist. Tomorrow is always tomorrow, once it gets here it becomes today and when it passes it is yesterday. I’ve spent a lot of time over the years waiting for tomorrow and someday. Tomorrow I’ll call that person or write that letter. I don’t. Someday I’ll sit down and write that book. I haven’t. When things slow down, when life isn’t so crazy, I’ll accomplish a whole list of things I want to complete. Life hasn’t slowed down, in fact, it’s getting busier and crazier.
It seems like yesterday my baby girl was learning to walk, today she is a junior in college going for Criminal Law. Where did the time go? It was just a short while ago that I was talking to my second little girl about picking up her baby dolls, and now she has three babies of her own! Tomorrow I will take the time to take my boys fishing and camping, next weekend when it’s not so crazy, later this summer when things slow down…. but I rarely did. Now they are both grown and living on their own. Where did the summers go? Where are all of those tomorrows? I let them slide right by me disguised as today’s.
Do you have little children at home? Today is the tomorrow you were talking about yesterday. It’s so cliche and yet so very true! Remember when you brought the baby home and all you wanted was for them to sleep through the night and then they did! Oh how you couldn’t wait until they could walk, and they are! You’ll find time when they start school, then they started school and you would plan for summers only to find you were planning for school!
This is why I love scrapbooking so much. It is not a fluffy art to entertain bored women. It is a way to capture those precious moments and store them away! You don’t have to do it every day. You don’t have to journal every moment of your child’s life. Even capturing one moment is more than you had yesterday, right?
That next great assignment that comes home from school, slide it into a pocket page with the date on it. That moment is now captured!
Today they are one day older, they are one day closer to being grown and gone. The same goes with our parents and grandparents. Recently we lost two elderly family members. Both of them were important to me and both were on my ‘tomorrow list’. Tomorrow I will write to them, tomorrow we will catch up. I have no more tomorrows to share with them. They left yesterday.
Where were they born? What did they love? What would they change? How did they meet their spouse? What brought them joy? I will never know.
Talk to your loved ones. Learn about them. Hold on to your today and to them. Seek them out. Encourage them. Listen to them. Take a photo today. Of what you might ask? Of them doing what they love. Ask them about it. Why do they love it? What brings them joy?
You can’t do anything with yesterdays once they are gone. You can rejoice in them if you’ve captured them! This is what scrapbooking is to me.
I would love to help you get started! Preserving your memories does not have to be time consuming or difficult. It just has to be. There are many styles available now. Digital is an easy way to get your memories saved without storing supplies! Be cautious on where you purchase the albums from though, the purpose of saving these memories is so they last and the reason the cheap guys are cheap, is because they can offer a lesser quality paper and ink. The same is true for the big store brands. Make sure your purchases are meant to last.
Capture today, right now, this moment. What have you been putting off? Right now is a great time to tackle that! Just do it!
Tammey Brown
NOTE: I posted this on Febuary 10, 2012. That Sunday (2/12/12) I got to church to hear an amazing, right to the heart sermon. The new series is called “Live Like You Were Dying”, wow. Can you imagine how much we would get done? How much we would share? How much we would talk? How much we would take the time to tell loved ones how much they are loved? To see the sermon, click here
http://www.prairieheights.com/messages?sermon_id=112
It’s worth watching! Be prepared to be inspired!
~Tammey