Today, while scrolling through the news, I watched footage showing people leaving a fair while President Trump was speaking. Whatever anyone’s political views may be, one thought immediately came to mind: Things are changing.
Then, almost immediately, another thought followed: It should have happened sooner.
That second thought stopped me in my tracks.
How often do we do this to ourselves? We finally see progress, finally experience relief, finally notice positive change, and instead of simply appreciating it, we weigh it down with things like it should have happened earlier. Why did it take so long? Or this should have been different.
Those few words steal something valuable. They replace relief with regret, gratitude with frustration, and hope with a lingering sense of failure. Rather than celebrating the progress in front of us, we continue carrying yesterday’s burden.
It made me wonder how much of the heaviness we feel isn’t caused by today’s circumstances at all, but by the constant habit of judging the timing of our lives. We finally reach a better place, yet our minds refuse to let us enjoy it because we’re still arguing with the past.
Peace doesn’t come when life becomes perfect. It comes the moment we stop fighting yesterday and start accepting today.
Perhaps real freedom isn’t found when the world finally changes. Perhaps it begins the moment we choose to quiet our own minds, accept the moment for what it is, and allow ourselves to simply be at peace. In choosing peace, we create our own freedom.
Donna J. McNamara
Perryville
