Why Not! Do it Today

- by Julie Wininger

Everyday on the way to work I drive down a street lined with pine trees.  One tree in particular captured my attention.  As a sapling, it must have suffered some catastrophe.  Part of its trunk grew nearly parallel to the ground, and then in an effort to change its own course of life, the trunk took a 90 degree turn attempting to stand tall and stretch toward to sun. 

This tree became a symbol for me.  Each day as I drove by, I saw this bent but determined tree and I would be encouraged.  It was a reminder to me that even though I may not have had the best start in life, I could change direction in the parts of my life I needed to at any time.

I stopped one day to get a picture of my kindred-spirit tree. And then a week later, I hit upon an idea for another picture.  I envisioned the exact angle for a perfect picture that would illustrate a topic I had planned to present at an upcoming Y-Knot seminar.  But that week I was busy. On into the next week I drove by the tree and would tell myself, ‘Tomorrow, I’ll stop tomorrow.’ 

Then one day, as I drove by ‘my’ tree I glanced over, and to my horror found a sawed off stump where that symbolic tree had stood.  Gone.  I had put off my quest until ‘tomorrow’ and tomorrow proved to be too late. 

Granted a picture of a tree is not a great loss.  But my lesson rang through clearly when I found out a man I had worked with years ago had been diagnosed with stage-four cancer.  He may no longer have many tomorrows.  

What have you been putting off?  What would you do today if you knew you would never have the opportunity to do it again?  How would you treat the people you love?  Would that argument you had really matter that much?  Would you make time to listen to your children? 

Remembering these lessons in my own life I have spent more time with my family, taken time to contact friends, and have taken the long way home to stop and enjoy the annual, and brief, flower festival in Carlsbad, California.   

I went back to the site of where the tree had once stood and found a small pinecone left as a legacy.  I kept this as a symbol determination embodied in that special tree.  And of the possibility of growth of the next generation.

What will you do with your ‘today?’  Why Not! Do those things that you had been putting off until tomorrow.