Today Is The Day

I woke up this morning determined to do something. I wake up a lot mornings determined to do something. But on many of those days, as the hours pass and time slips away like a vapor cloud, my plans burn up like the sun burning off the fog.

So, I’ve decided to start a movement, if only with myself. #todayistheday….

I’ll keep a small book and every morning I will write a sentence of the one thing I want to accomplish that day.

This morning it was to go for a walk.

And I did. It would have been easy to not go. It was raining. I was tired. I had so many other things to do. I used to go for a walk on most days, but lately I have let the habit fall away. It is the one routine that I have been wanting to get back. It provides me with so many positive things. I clear my mind and work things out. I smell the air. I am exposed to the fractal images of nature, even while walking in my neighborhood. I move my body. I feel better about myself when I am done. So today I walked. In the rain. I told myself when I started that I only had to go for thirty minutes. I stayed out for ninety. It felt good.

This picture is not the most flattering of me, I look sort of like a drowned rat in a floppy red rain hat, but it is me walking in the rain. While walking, I was reminded how different the rain smells here in the mountains than it does where I grew up in Kansas. There the rain always has a sharp scent, electric and metal. Here the fragrance is soft and earthy. I remembered the first time I smelled the rain in the mountains. It was on a family camping trip when I was eight or nine. We traveled to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was raining as we set up camp and the smell was intense. Over the next week it rained often and that smell imprinted itself onto my brain. While I was walking today, my mind naturally flowed back to that place in time. It was a sweet memory of my mom and I spending time together. Every day we would go for walks while my dad and brother fished for trout in the streams. My mom passed away six weeks ago and her death is one of the things clouding my mind right now. It was good to just be with that memory for a time. The walk in the rain allowed that to happen. And it would not have happened if I had not decided that today is the day…I go for a walk.

So let’s make #todayistheday…. a permanent thing. It doesn’t have to be something big. It can be anything positive.

#todayistheday…. I eat fish for dinner

#todayistheday…. I do yoga

#todayistheday…. I sleep in

 

It can be about eating well.

#todayistheday…. I eat five servings of vegetables

#todayistheday…. I have fruit for dessert

#todayistheday…. I plan next weeks meals

It can be about moving your body.

#todayistheday…. I start a Pilates class

#todayistheday…. I go for a run

#todayistheday…. I get 10,000 steps

#todayistheday…. I go for a hike

It can be fun.

#todayistheday…. I take myself to the art museum

#todayistheday…. we play in the park

#todayistheday…. I let the cat decide whether we get up now or stay in bed

Okay, we all know how that one is going to go, unless I forgot to feed her last night.

 

It can be the same thing five days in a row.

#todayistheday…. I go for a bike ride

#todayistheday…. I go for a bike ride

#todayistheday…. I go for a bike ride

#todayistheday…. I go for a bike ride

#todayistheday…. I go for a bike ride

Then you can do one more day for good measure.

#todayistheday…. I go for a bike ride

 

It can be something you do often, but have fallen behind on.

#todayistheday…. I catch up on laundry

 

It can be something that you have been meaning to do but haven’t gotten around to.

#todayistheday…. I write that old friend

#todayistheday…. I make up with my sister

 

It can be something hard.

#todayistheday…. I say yes to myself, and no to others

#todayistheday…. I forgive

 

It can be something beautiful.

#todayistheday…. I see the sunrise

#todayistheday…. I take the time to enjoy the sunset

It can be something restful.

#todayistheday…. I take ten minutes at lunchtime to close my eyes and breathe

#todayistheday…. I plan a vacation with friends

What it cannot be is something unattainable.

#todayistheday…. I lose 30 pounds

Not. Gonna. Happen. No matter how hard you try. Don’t set yourself up for failure. And any statement with the word “lose” in it, is not positive.

Instead, let the little accomplishments that happen everyday play a starring role in your life. At the end of the day give yourself a little check mark and a resounding “YES! I DID THAT TODAY.”

If what you chose just didn’t happen that day, don’t fret about it. Don’t write an excuse for it either. Simply check a little box that says “For another day.”

You can keep this to yourself. Or, you can shout it to the world on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or whatever social platform you feel comfortable. You can text it to your best friend. Or not. You can whisper it to your husband before you fall asleep. You can do it on paper, or on your phone. You can add pictures or drawings. You can make this your own. You can inspire others. You can inspire yourself.

#todayistheday…. I make it happen

#todayistheday…. You make it happen