Gift of the day

I have spoken often of the people who come each morning to the streetcar stop across the street from me. Each morning they show up at the same time, they tend to stand or pace or look at their watches in the same way. I suppose we are all much the same in the sense that we have our routines and our way of doing things and this tends to make each day quite similar, some might even think, boring. But this is not as it seems. 

I say 'this is not as it seems' because in fact, each day is different, new, a new start, a new given. Each day will bring a different way of looking at what seems common to us. Each day even lived with the same people and the same job and the same schedule is a unique opportunity really to live to the full. I certainly don't always think of that but of course that man of wisdom, the Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh does. He says:

Every twenty four hour day is a tremendous gift to us. So we all should learn to live in a way that makes joy and happiness possible. We can do this. I begin my day...I think to myself that this day is a day to live fully, and I make the vow to live each moment of it in a way that is beautiful, solid and free...you can do the same thing. Tell yourself that a new day has been offered to you, and you have to be here to live it.*

That seems so wise to me. Life does whizz along and, at my stage of life (mid 70's) you begin really to experience in new ways that what is past can't be lived again; that what is past has gone and perhaps cannot be touched. The future is of course uncertain, so today is what I have. I think it is an art? a gift? a work in progress? to be able to be here, now. I have said this before I think, so it must be that it is important to me and maybe to you?
*The Everyday wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh, compiled and edited by Melvin McLeod, Shambhala Press, Boston, 2011