Kaylin and Vivian, the two youngest in our herd of grandkids, met at McDonald’s for a visit yesterday. Life is but a tea party when you’re four and five months old. Vivian, the first born female in her family and a month older, looks to be explaining a few things to Kaylin, the baby sister to two big brothers. Wouldn’t it be interesting to know what they’re really thinking and trying to say?

Being older and bossier, Vivian is most likely saying, “Girl, can you believe our moms put these bows on our heads? It’s not our fault we don’t have any hair. We’re trying the best we can to grow some. Good grief, your bow is half as big as your head!”

I’m sure by the expression on her face, Kaylin is thinking, “You know what, Viv is right, but boy does she talk a lot. Maybe she’ll run out of energy and be quiet in a minute ... then maybe not.”

Life is pretty simple for the girls. They aren’t concerned about next week or even tomorrow. The market summary and mortgage rates aren’t anywhere on their radar of worry. And who cares about rising gas prices. If they have a full belly and a dry bottom, right now, life is good.

We can learn something very important from Vivian and Kaylin. It seems to be such a challenge to the grown-up world, but they have no problem living in the present and enjoying right now. There’s nothing to gain worrying forward about things we have absolutely no control over. I usually blame my worry on that irritating voice that keeps asking, “What are you going to do? What are you going to do? What are you going to do!”

I think it would be best if I just said out loud, “I don’t know right now, so shut up and sit down.” Maybe it would.

We waste the right now fretting over yesterday and worrying about tomorrow. I asked Karen, Jim’s brother’s wife, how she handles the stress of dealing with Joe’s raging cancer and all that comes with it. She said, “I open the door to today when I get up. I live today and face today what I need to face and enjoy what I can enjoy. At the end of the day I close the door. Tomorrow I’ll do the same.”

That’s brilliant. Really we should live every day like that, dealing with a deadly disease or not. Enjoy right now. The girls sure do.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.”
-Matthew 6:34