One day at a time

I'm old enough to know that life moves through phases and that some of them overlap in ways you only recognise years later. The Pink Floyd line that goes “and then one day you’ll find, ten years have got behind you” hits differently with age. Time is elastic; it can vanish and stretch all at once. Those who are parents will know the feeling when someone says that children grow up so fast. It used to irritate me, but I have to admit there is truth in it.

Since early 2008 I've been learning and relearning how to live. It was a profound shift, though not the kind that happens overnight. It began quietly, one choice at a time. The work has never really stopped. I still have to remind myself to stay in the day I am in, to pay attention, to keep my balance when life leans. Peace doesn't arrive once and stay forever, you have to keep making room for it.

Looking back, the years since then have been full. I've got married, become a parent, moved to another country, started over more than once, and watched my work life twist and surprise me in ways I could never have planned. Through it all I have adapted and kept going one day at a time. What used to baffle me now often amazes me instead.

Most of life happens somewhere in the middle, in the rhythm of ordinary days that look the same from the outside but feel entirely different depending on where your head and heart are. When I can find gratitude in those in-between moments, things tend to fall into place.

Some lessons arrive quickly and others take their time. Things happen sometimes quickly and sometimes slowly, but they do happen if you keep at it. When I stay grounded, when I focus on what is right in front of me, when I trust that not everything needs to be handled by me, life has a way of sorting itself out.

So I try to keep it simple. Strive to do the right thing. Be kind. Stay present. Help where I can. When I fall short, I start again. Gratitude is the daily reset, the reminder that every morning is another chance to begin, to learn, and to see the world a little more clearly.

I’ve written elsewhere about what it takes to stay balanced when the world gets loud, but the principle is the same. You come back to centre when you can and keep going.

If you identify with what I'm describing, then we already have something in common.

(Photo taken from an Airbnb in Faulensee, Switzerland, a favourite place, during a holiday in 2016)