Tomorrow is Another Day

As a huge Gone With the Wind fan, I always remember Scarlett O'Hara's approach to the turmoils in her life: "I'll think about it tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day."

Not to advocate procrastination by any means, I do agree that sometimes a twirl of the planet can help a lot. For a while I felt like the guy on Arther Miller's The Crucible, who is lying down, being interrogated while heavy rocks are piled on his chest to threaten suffocation and extract a confession. (His defiant response just before his death: "MORE WEIGHT!!!") But my "stress therapy" day has been followed by "another day" (and even another day after that), bringing a string of relieving and happy events. I feel like some of those rocks have been lifted from me, making the daily grind more manageable.

I still have a lot on my plate, but I always knew it was better to be busy than bored. And I am still just so glad that I can appreciate complex thinking.

I listened to my new copy of the soundtrack to the musical, Wicked, and there was a snippet of a song that made me laugh:

But I say: why invite stress in?

Stop studying strife

And learn to live "the unexamined life":

Dancing through life

Skimming the surface

Gliding where turf is smooth

Life's more painless

For the brainless

Why think too hard?

When it's so soothing

Dancing through life

I kept thinking of myself, becoming gradually more "brainless", putting on my clog dancing shoes and dancing through life. It gave me a good chuckle. And then I snapped back to the reality that - hooray! - I'm not really brainless (at least not yet). I can still take on the challenges of the day, and it feels great when I do.

Another song from the soundtrack reminded me of all of my family and friends who have blanketed me with support:

I've heard it said

That people come into our lives for a reason

Bringing something we must learn

And we are led to those who help us most to grow

If we let them

And we help them in return

Well, I don't know if I believe that's true

But I know I'm who I am today

Because I knew you

Like a comet pulled from orbit

As it passes a sun

Like a stream that meets a boulder

Halfway through the wood

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

But because I knew you I have been changed for good

It well may be

That we will never meet again

In this lifetime

So let me say before we part

So much of me is made of what I learned from you

You'll be with me

Like a handprint on my heart

And now whatever way our stories end

I know you have re-written mine

By being my friend.

Like a ship blown from its mooring

By a wind off the sea

Like a seed dropped by a skybird

In a distant wood

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

But because I knew you I have been changed for good.