Friday, August 10, 2007

It’s Another Day

One of my favourite lines in the movie Gone With The Wind is when Scarlett says ‘Tomorrow is another day.’ This line has given me hope many times when the skies of my life were bleak and I couldn’t see around the corner of whatever challenge was facing me at the time I would remind myself, that after all, tomorrow was another day. No matter what it looked like at the moment, I knew that tomorrow would bring perhaps a solution, or maybe simply another perception of the situation I was in. I would remind myself that things always get better eventually.



   Anything can change tomorrow, or even today, or even this moment. We simply have to keep the door open to the possibility of change — keep our mind and heart open to looking for a next step, a resolution of our dilemma. When we give up, or when we think it’s all hopeless, we stop looking for solutions and we stop being open to the miracles that the Universe can send our way.



   There are many things that we see when we look around us — whether in our household, in our work situation, in the world — that are ‘far from perfect’. But, everything that exists today can be different tomorrow, or the day after that. The important thing for us to remember is that there is hope. I always like to say: As long as you’re still breathing, there’s still hope. (And if you are confident in life after death, as I am, then you know there’s still hope after your body is no longer breathing.)



   Nothing in our life, no matter how terrible it seems, is hopeless. Whether later today or tomorrow, we still will have opportunities to ‘make it better’. Whether we are dealing with relationships, work situations, or world crises — it can all change. Nothing is ever always the same — things are in a constant process of change, and when we are setting our intentions properly, the change is towards the betterment of our life situation.



   I must say, I am rather enjoying seeing all the ‘dirt’ coming out about the corporations and CEOs involved. Not that I’m glad it all happened, but rather I’m happy that it’s all coming out in the open. After all, in order to change or “heal” a situation, we must first realise and acknowledge that there is something that needs healing. Thus all the shenanigans coming out about Enron, WorldCom, AOL, Haliburton, and some of the major key players in the US administration will finally give us a chance to ‘fix’ the problems. First we must see the problem — then we go about resolving it. If we deny that there is injustice, dishonesty, and corruption, then we also are denying the possibility of ‘fixing’ what is wrong in our world.



   It is the same in our personal lives. If someone is in a battered relationship, first they must acknowledge that the situation exists before they can do something about it. We cannot decide to leave an abusive marriage before acknowledging that something is unhealthy about the relationship — the same applies to work situations, financial situations. First we acknowledge that there is a problem, then we start looking to see how to resolve it.



   The important thing to remember when we see a problem — or something that needs balancing or a ‘course correction’ — is that we must simply ‘see the problem’. Getting into a barrage of blame and anger and guilt will not get us any closer to a resolution. We must look at ourselves and at the people around us as small children who need a “course correction”. When you see a child about to do something that will harm themselves or others, you correct them — yet we all know that we can attract more bees with honey than vinegar. It is best to correct with love and compassion and understanding, than to do so with retribution, rage, and name-calling.



   If we want to make changes in our lives and in the world around us, blame, anger, and venom will not attain positive change. We need to focus on the solution we want, focus on the outcome we desire, and see what steps we need to take to attain that goal — one step at a time, one day at a time.



   After all, tomorrow is another day. We simply need to live our today’s with an eye on our tomorrows and make course corrections when needed.

-By Marie T Russell