Finding what you want in the time you have now

Comedian Gilda Radner said, “I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned the hard way that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next.”

The truth of that has really sunk in for most of us since March of 2020. We've lived all these months, not knowing what was going to happen next — and we still don't know. The danger is we can put our lives on hold, just waiting to be happy — someday. We've done it before.

When we were children, we longed to be adults and the freedom we imagined it would bring. When we were 20, we wanted to be 30 which we thought meant being mature and sophisticated. Then in middle age, we wanted to be 20 again — enjoying the youth and the free spirit. In our later years, we wished we could return to middle age, enjoying the presence of mind, without all the limitations.

Without realizing it, too many folks, reach the end of their lives — never getting what they wanted.

This pandemic is another wake-up call that tomorrow may not come, or if it does, it may be totally different than what we'd expected.

So this day, let's hug those around us a little tighter, rest more and pray more, and look for the blessings. They are there if we will pay attention.

The gift of the pandemic is a reminder life is to be lived one day at a time — embracing the sorrow and the joy — for as many days as we have on this earth.