Tomorrow Never Comes

Perhaps the most central and most challenging issue or concept in the entire 21st century self-help world -- led by folks like Eckhart Tolle and others -- is this: tomorrow never comes.

What makes this so challenging for us to accept is that, while we without question grasp the truth of this -- we need only to reflect on our private experiences to know that there has never been a "tomorrow" in our lives -- we are faced with the fear that, if we don't somehow plan and think and prepare for tomorrow, that we will somehow abandon our responsibility to life itself. We fear, for example, that accepting that there is no tomorrow will somehow render us weak or vulnerable in any number of ways -- financially, socially, in terms of intelligence, and so on.

And we certainly know someone, or many someones, who go around talking about "there is no tomorrow" and, well, you can see that they're simply using this "belief" as an excuse to avoid the responsibilities and challenges of today. And naturally, none of us want to end up doing that -- because, as we can see, that's not a solution either. People who constantly use "there's no tomorrow" as a convenient excuse for avoiding today are hardly happy; in fact, most of the time, they are quite miserable and unhappy.

See how challenging this really is?

The thing to grasp is really to change the emphasis from "there is no tomorrow" to one that is more illuminating and, indeed, more sensible: celebrate today.

When you appreciate today, when you accept it in its totality -- yes, this includes things that your mind says it doesn't like or doesn't want -- when you grasp and allow the reality of those things to co-exist with you -- you, in essence, celebrate today.

Remember: celebrating today doesn't mean having a party every day. There is no need. Sometimes its sunny, sometimes it rains. Sometimes days are smooth and easy, sometimes they are rough and challenging. It can all be celebrated, simply by accepting it as real -- by not taking a position that is fundamentally at odds with reality.

YES you can and will change things -- in fact, you don't have do change them, they will change on their own because the language of life is change. But if you celebrate reality -- that is, if you accept the TODAY-ness of your today -- then you ride the wave of change, rather than struggle anxiously against it.