Saturday morning I drove in the darkness to greet the sun as it rose over Weiss Lake near Cedar Bluff.  One positive thing about being in the grip of a drought is that it reveals things usually hidden.  In the foreground of this photo you can see the remnants of old highway 9 which are usually buried underneath a few feet of water.  As I was wandering in the pre-dawn darkness I saw the ruins of the once great road and felt this would be a grand place to wait the arrival of my old friend.  So I make a u-turn and parked on the side of the road and climb down about twenty feet to the dry lake bed and waited.

        Slowly the sky brightens and the clouds appear ablaze with anticipation and the hope this new day brings.  Large flocks of birds stretch their wings and swim through the cool morning breeze.  And the herons with their long slender legs wade slowly through the shallow waters waiting for breakfast to arrive.  Here I stand amazed at the transformation made by the passing of a few moments.  Only a few minutes ago I stood in the dark delivery room awaiting the birth of a brand new day.  This day came into this world very clean and perfect and when he placed himself into my hands I know I have witnessed the delivery of a day like no other in history. 

        As I stand here watching the reflection of the sun shimmer and dance on the surface of the shallow waters I glance once again to the remains of the old road with a strange sense of déjà vu.  Then it hits me; this road looks a lot like my yesterdays.  This ruined road standing submerged in the muddy waters will never again be fit for travel.  Likewise, what happened yesterday has already gone down the drain of eternity, never to return.  Yesterday is a check that I have already written, signed, cashed and spent its treasures.  And as I think back over my life I begin to wonder what I really purchased with the currency of my yesterdays.

        Time slides through our fingers like a well-greased string.  Time is so precious that it is dealt out to us only in the smallest possible fractions—a tiny moment at a time.  It must not be permitted to slip away unsavored and unappreciated.  Let us not walk through time without leaving worthy evidence of our passage.  Invest your time today loving, laughing, giving, sharing, helping and caring.  Happiness is a choice; choose wisely today.

Something to think about:

• I cannot change yesterday. I can only make the most of today and look with hope toward tomorrow.

• The past is valuable as a guidepost, but dangerous if used as a hitching post.

• There is no past we can bring back by longing for it. There is only an eternal now that builds and creates out of the past something new and better.

• You can’t turn back the clock. But you can wind it up again.

• Enjoy the blessings of this day, if God sends them; and the evils of it bear patiently and sweetly: for this day only is ours, we are dead to yesterday, and we are not yet born to the morrow.

• To worry about tomorrow or yesterday is to be unhappy today.

• Every moment comes to you pregnant with a divine purpose; time being so precious that God deals it out only second by second. Once it leaves your hands and your power to do with it as you please, it plunges into eternity, to remain forever what you made it.

• We all find time to do what we really want to do.

• He who neglects the present moment throws away all he has.

Thankful for this day
Rickey Moore