There are two days in every week about which we should not worry,
two days which should be kept from fear and apprehension.
One of those days is “Yesterday”,
with its mistakes and cares,
its faults and blunders, its aches and pains.
Yesterday has passed for ever beyond our control.
All the money in the world cannot bring back yesterday.
We cannot undo a single act we performed.
We cannot erase a single word we said.
Yesterday has gone beyond our recall.
The other day we should not worry about is “Tomorrow”,
with its possible adversities, its blunders,
its large promise and perhaps its poor performance.
Tomorrow is past our immediate control.
Tomorrow’s sun will rise;
until it does we have no stake in tomorrow, for it is yet unborn.
This leaves only one day – “Today”.
Any man can fight the battle of just one day.
It is only when you and I add the burden of those awful days,
“Yesterday” and “Tomorrow”, that we break down.
It is not the experience of today that drives men mad.
It is the remorse or bitterness for what happened yesterday,
the dread of tomorrow and what it might bring.
Let us therefore do our best to live but one day at a time.
This unsigned poem was reprinted by permission from Sharing (Winter 1997), the newsletter of the Child Cancer Foundation of New Zealand.