Take each day as a gift.
This thought is specially relevant nowadays to a world reeling with the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Millions are dying. Millions are getting sick of the virus. Millions are losing their jobs. Millions are affected by the economic meltdown. Millions of families are displaced and suffering. Millions are in desperate search for solutions.
In the ultimate, the pandemic forces us to learn to come to terms with existential issues. Such are mainly related to the meaning of this life – and of death.
Yesterday afternoon, Bonnie, a young patient, was sharing with me her feelings about the death of her father from severe Covid.
“I feel afraid. I’m still not over it. What happened to my father could easily be me one of these days. Our area is locked down due to the local virus spread. Each day is a gift, really.”
Bonnie is still a young woman. Yet her awareness of death has already been profoundly prompted. It compels her to strive early to see her days in a different light.
Psychologist and author Dr. Jeffrey Kottler, in his book “Therapy Over 50,” writes,
“Successful adjustment is … a subjective experience rather than the way things might appear to others… living in the present is one of the single most important facets of a positive adjustment … taking each day as a gift, maintaining a sense of wonder rather than brooding … it’s critical that each day has meaning, rather than worrying unduly about an uncertain future.”
For me, as a psychotherapist, this is where my work can be incredibly useful to my days. People need to tell their stories and heal. And I’m there to hear them.
It teaches me to focus on them as gifts I receive every day. Rather than the continuing struggles or obstacles I encounter in my own life.
Take each day as a gift. Give it meaning.
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