One Day at a Time
Today was a typical Monday morning for me. I woke up, showered, took care of a few things on the computer and then got into the car to head up to campus at noon. Once I had embarked on my ride, I decided that Willie Nelson was the thing to listen to and tuned the iPod to his Willie and Family Live CD. The song ‘One Day at a Time’ came on as I cruised through the intersection at 2222 and Burnet and it was as though I was hearing it for the first time. This is ironic because this song was a staple of my childhood … if anything, you could always count on hearing Willie Nelson, Neil Diamond, Jimmy Buffet and ZZ Top on the stereo at our place. It was confusing because I know all of those songs better than I know most things in my life.
And then, it dawned on me. The song, albeit very simplistic, had taken on a new meaning for me and I had not heard it since then. Several months ago, when I was at my Mom’s house vacationing for a few days, we got into a long conversation about how stressed out I get and my general need to settle down and focus on getting through the PhD years. During this talk, my Mom fished her wallet out of her purse and pulled out a credit card sized card and handed it to me. It was a light yellow color and had a graphic printed on it that represented footprints in the sand. The card said ‘One Day at a Time’ on it and nothing else. She told me that years ago, after my Dad had died, my grandmother had given her the card to remind her that the best she could do was take it one day at a time and be thankful for that. She had carried the card in her wallet since then. The exchange snapped my perspective back into focus and made me realize that I can do all of this and should be thankful for each day that I get to continue to do what it is that I do. Of course, my cynical side makes that difficult on some days, but I do the best that I can.
For now, as I sit on my porch, staring down the next 16 days of school work and tedium, I can only laugh at myself and quote my favorite country western singer …
“I live one day at a time
And I dream one dream at a time
Yesterday is dead and tomorrow is blind
And I live one day at time …”
–Willie Nelson, ‘One Day at a Time’