My Future Is Today!

Several years ago I was at a party, and among those present was a man trying to convince the others of the theory that "time and space are one." To prove it, he took a spoon and set it on the table, saying: "I move the spoon to the right, and time passes while I do so; likewise, by this motion I leave an empty place which, in the reckoning of time, we call the past, and the point the spoon reaches is the future; and thus we see that time and space are one." There was a silence, after which our host said: "Yet even if we did not move the spoon, this time would still pass; and then we could never, by returning the spoon to its present place, bring time back. So the time that is passing now, and at every hour, is the future!"

A debate arose between the negative and the affirmative to which I paid little attention, for I was thinking of that phrase which had sunk deep into my mind: today is my future. Those two words have influenced the direction of my life to a great degree; they have set my thinking at rest, increased my capacity for work, and improved my health!

My belief that the future is today drives me to look ever forward, thinking and working for tomorrow. I used to be like every young thing looking out upon life for the first time: I followed no fixed aim, but gathered up occupations and hobbies and friendships, not one of which convinced me or satisfied me; and the future, in my eyes, was a distant sky in which cares dissolved, and which would carry off all problems and obstacles! But that notion vanished completely, and I adopted rules by which to shape my life and conduct it on a basis of sound direction. The first thing I set about was organizing the work by which I earn my living. I resolved to work steadily, far from disturbance, for I have never heard of a writer, man or woman, who reached the summit with a piece dashed off between telephone calls and the receiving of visitors; and everyone who has taken up writing as a profession knows what a hard craft is in his hands... Certain household demands used to cut across the current of my thought — cooking, mending the furniture — so I laid down rules for my program in this respect; and I discovered, moreover, that my visitor will never notice the unwashed floor or windowpane unless I draw his attention to it!

Before I took up the new method, I used to welcome everyone who came calling, friend or not; now I have confined my relations to those in whose friendship I find ease, and only those. Then I resolved never to argue over any subject, for I see in that nothing but a waste of time.

As for the field of mental habits, I have trained my mind to stay away from everything that might stir up some incident of the past. I do not say: if only I had been kind to this woman... if only I had held my tongue and not uttered that phrase... Such a chain can stretch on almost without end, until feeling grows cramped and a person becomes a failed, dependent character. Then there is the recalling of happy things and the living upon them, remembering them for hours on end — hours that must be counted barren and unfruitful in the practical field.

I look with wonder and pleasure at whatever I possess now, or am doing in the present; and if I return to the events of the past, it is to bless them as steps by which I climbed to my present station. Every thinking person can do this, and so make something of the hours that slip away from him unfelt!

For today is better than yesterday, in its newness and its freshness; time has left yesterday behind and walked on with us. And the mind can learn this, and move forward, at every step and at every moment!