Dear friends,

Carpe diem!

We’ve just seen the summer solstice so by the time you read this already the nights are drawing in.

Did you make any New Year resolutions and are you still keeping to them – or like me and I suspect most of us have you long since given up making resolutions in the realisation that you never keep to them?

You may well have heard the expression that today is the first day of the rest of your life – many of you will also know that Alcoholics Anonymous and other groups dealing with addictions deal with them each day at a time.

We have the strange ability as human beings to plan and imagine ourselves in the future – we also have the gift or curse of being able to dwell in the past. The reality that we live in is only ever today and it is that which we must focus upon. Our hopes for tomorrow are shaped by how we live today. Our regrets and our blessings may shape how we are today; but both may hinder what we experience now. The present should be cherished as a gift and embraced as such.

It is not wrong to plan; neither is it wrong to look back and learn – both indeed can be good, but the present contains all the potential for renewal change and hope.

If there are things you plan to do tomorrow – make a start today.

If there are things you feel you need to put behind you do that now and be free to enjoy and make the best of today.

Jesus said “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

Value yourself and those around you and accept today as a gift from God to be shared to the uttermost! Carpe diem – seize the day!

Tek care

Nigel Rodgers

Superintendent Minister,

North Kirklees and Morley Methodist Circuit.