Random Dialogues 32 “Give Me Today” by Olive Tyson #randomdialogues32

I do not make resolutions anymore. They are for tomorrow and tomorrow is an illusion. Once I said this must be planned, that must be plotted, but when plots and plans matured the tomorrows were not as I imagined.

All over the world men and women are sitting down to construct a world their children will not want. Nations and parties produce their five-year plans and all the time circumstances are changing so that the fruits bring no satisfaction. Tomorrow I may not be, or if I am, my hopes and desires will be other that they are today.

Give me today. Give me this dull December, with its soft rain and wet pavements, the child laughing in its pram, the old man shuffling through the crowd. Let me live as if this were all, every moment and significant, every hour pregnant with possibility. Let me take all that is joy of love, my share of disappointment. Let me use my resources of strength and spirit for this day’s work; of serenity for this day’s comforting; of endurance for this day’s suffering.

When I look back on my todays, I shall have lived each one rounded, fulfilled, complete. When the end comes in which there is no tomorrow I shall rejoice — for today is.

Olive Tyson (1920–2000) From ‘A collection of Olive’s writings while Assistant Editor of The Friend 1966–1970’

Which I discovered yesterday whilst clearing my own nan’s garage. More about this story in the video:

Jane Tyson
Random Dialogues