Wednesday Wisdom

Wednesday Wisdom probably won't be a regular feature, but I thought it would be interesting to periodically post some of the great quotes that I come across.  As with so much of my life, finding these words of wisdom is usually a serendipitous discovery.

"Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly hand."  
~ Thomas Carlyle

How often do I waste time trying to peer into the future?  I squint and strain to see something that is too far off for me to bring it into focus.  Yet in the meantime, I neglect to see what is right under my nose -- that which requires my attention and my action at this moment.

Carlyle seems to be endorsing a "small steps" approach of sorts.  He tells us to deal with the work and issues that confront us right now rather than looking ahead and trying to anticipate what will occur.  If we follow this plan, the things that we work through on a daily basis will prepare us for what lies ahead in the distant future.

So many of us, myself included, are guilty of thinking ahead, jumping ahead to a future date -- when the kids will be adults and living on their own, or when we will have grandchildren to spoil, or any other scenario that is an anticipated pinprick on our horizon.  And while we gaze off into the distance and think and plan for that future event, we fail to make the most of our life in the here and now.  We run the risk of letting the only moment that we have guaranteed to us -- this very moment -- slip away, never to be lived again.

I don't believe Carlyle is saying that we shouldn't plan ahead or look forward to something that might be weeks or months or years off.  Rather I think he's saying that while it's okay to glance ahead every now and then to make sure we're making progress, our main focus needs to be on the path that lies right in front of us and the cares and the joys of this day.