Yesterday and Tomorrow

About a month ago I came across a prayer/poem that has been framed in my parents' house for decades. I read it. Then I read it again.

Two Days
There are two days about which
I never worry:
yesterday and tomorrow.
Those days belong to God;
so that leaves me only today.
It is only when we add the great burden
of worry about yesterday and tomorrow
that a person breaks down.
Leave these to God, my friend,
and live just one day at a time.

I thought to myself that I should look for opportunities to call on that principle in my day to day life. And the universe handed it to me.

Last week I completely tripped out when I learned that a friend of mine is also friends with what I can only call my nemesis from junior high. I literally sat dumbfounded at the computer for a couple of minutes - my mind transporting me back into my 13 year old self - the long forgotten stress and emotional hardship of being bullied and picked on quickening my pulse.

Yesterday.

How could this awesome woman I know have anything to do with her? What could they possibly have in common?

Turns out their daughters are BFFs at preschool. Mystery solved. Still, I was surprised by how stunned I felt when I saw that this person whom I totally dig is "Facebook friends" with a girl (now woman) who was beyond awful to me many years ago. I am all for social media - love it, mostly - but this particular incidence of it rocked my world a little.

Anyway, it got me thinking. Obviously, people change. Maybe time and motherhood have made this woman a nicer person? Maybe she's matured and evolved and now doesn't gang up with her friends to torment someone she doesn't like?
Maybe if I had seen her at my friend's daughter's 3rd birthday party (instead of being at the hospital giving birth to Lilah) we would have chatted politely like young mothers do at parks and playgrounds. Hell, maybe she wouldn't have even remember how she treated me. Or better yet (this is how my mind works) - she would remember and then meeting me via our mutual friend would trigger remorse and regret and she would be ashamed and apologetic.

Tomorrow.

I have made some new mom friends over the past few years and will (hopefully) make more. I can say with some certainty that most of them and I would not have run in the same crowds in our teens or even twenties, in some cases. I have no way of knowing if they were nice in junior high or not. I can only see who they are now.

Today.

It's really just an elaborate way of reminding myself to live in the moment. It's a lesson worth repeating. I can already think of about 3 other ways that it applies to me right now. I think I needed it.