It's not always easy to understand that the day stretching before us is all that counts. 

Daydreaming about the party last week, or getting upset all over again about a fight we had yesterday with a friend doesn't help us right now.

When our minds are on the past, we miss out on the conversation or the activity that is going on around us. 

Every moment of the day is special, and guaranteed to help us grow and understand life.

All of us have been taught to pay attention in school, or to pay attention when others talk to us. 

But we should also pay attention to the birds, the sky, even the grass.

And we can learn a lot by paying attention to the conversations going on around us, and to the small voice inside us that helps us know right from wrong. 

There were two women who shared a house and raised their daughters, two toddlers, together. Then one of the women got transferred to another city and moved with her daughter.

Ten years later, they had a reunion. The mothers asked their kids what they remembered about living together.

Did they remember all the books? No. Did they remember a mom in the kitchen every morning, fixing eggs and toast? No.

What they remembered was playing in the pink bathtub for hours, pulling the pink shower curtain shut for privacy. And the morning the mothers sneaked in, turned off the lights, threw plastic cups and spoons over the curtain and cried, "It's raining spoons!" They laughed and laughed.

We are lucky in this life -- our minds think laughter is what's worth remembering.

07/23/2003