Treat every day as your first and last... the secret to happiness

THEY say that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Great things take time and patience to bring to fruition. We know that is true yet we also know it takes but a day to change everything.

A day is a period of time stretching from dawn to dusk. At this time of year, we have long days of endless light. It is a time of heat and growth, of warmth and wonder.

That, however, is not the only way to measure a day. Whether short or long, hot or cold, a day is packed with events that we shall soon refer to as ‘history’. Each day begins as a clear canvas but, by nightfall, it resembles an exquisite collage of events that becomes yet another page in the human drama.

The human drama is something to which we all contribute. With each word spoken and each activity undertaken, we add a little more colour and life to the canvas. Our part in the drama is not predetermined, which is why the unfolding of each day is so fascinating.

‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has trouble enough of its own.’

Those precious words remind us that our only concern should be this day and how we live it. For today could well be our legacy, it could be that moment in the drama when we take centre stage.

It takes great control to let go of the past and to cease projecting into the future. It takes courage to stay rooted in the present and to consider every action as though it were your first and last. I have come to believe, however, that this is the key to human happiness.

Our middle son lives like this. Every now and then, I try to drag him back to the past. That he refuses to go shows that he exists in and for the moment.

Such is the reason why he smiles from dawn to dusk, why each day is for him a new beginning. There is no looking back, no regrets for what was or might have been. He simply lives in the now and milks it for all it is worth.

The sun rises and a fresh canvas stretches out before each of us. A new day has begun, one that is full of opportunity. Each action, word and decision will have a bearing, which is why we should act with charity and speak with sensitivity.

Rome was not built in a day but many great things can be. With a single soft word, a life can be healed of pain. A hand of forgiveness can release a person from a poisonous past.

A phone call, an email or even a text can make someone’s day. It can lift the loneliness and make a person feel as though they matter. And in the end, that is all that really matters.

Of course, there are days we all remember and others we wish we could forget. We remember wedding days, those on which our children were born and those marked by success. In every life, there are also days marked by sickness, disaster and death.

None of us can recall each and every day but we can remember moments from various days that, when added together, become the story of a life. Those days constitute the highlights that, in time, we share with our children and grandchildren. They are tales of courage and love, of good times and bad.

In between those highlights are the many thousands of forgotten days. To you they have been lost but elsewhere they may still be very much alive. The days that have long since faded from your memory, might well be the most memorable for others.

There was the day when, perhaps, you unconsciously smiled at the stranger on the street. That person had given up on life, had lost everything, even her will to persist. You smiled and, with that one kind gesture, you saved her life.

There was the day when, perhaps, you chatted to someone about nothing in particular. That person was alone in the world, forgotten by friends and family. You weren’t to know but those few words gave new life to that sad soul.

There was the day when, perhaps, you simply said ‘Hello’ to someone, called a friend or sent a little note.

SMALL things, yes, but they made all the difference and are still recalled with great gratitude. People everywhere remember such days as those of wine and roses. It only takes a day to build up or drag down a life. With each sunrise, we are given our chances to save and heal, to deny or destroy. And from the second we open our eyes, we can opt to be a source of light or of shade.

The direction we choose to take will determine if this day is remembered or forgotten. If, however, it is forgotten by you, it may well be remembered by others because of something you said or did.

Such is the difference a day makes. The sun soars and so do we. And then begins the drama from which no one can escape.

None of it is rehearsed, but all of it has lasting consequences. Remembering that may well ensure that you too shall be remembered.