Yesterday and Today

It begins in the moment you accept it as fact. That it has already happened and it cannot be undone. It begins when the words were spoken and are carried off to listening ears wherever the wind may find them. It begins in the pictures you take and develop or share for everyone to see whenever they deem to see them. In the time you tell happenings as stories and teach happenings to your young. In the moments you're gathered together with those you love and reminisce on events long passed. It starts in the moments you look back at your life, play scenes in your head like a movie or a slideshow, and remember how you were or what you did fondly or vow to never do the same thing twice. When the wheels of change are happening all around you, when advancements are made, when the styles morph into something new, when norms and customs are refined or refashioned, when new voices rise up, when new songs are sung, when new books spark greater and broader imagination, and the things you once knew are made better or erased from civil conversation altogether. When the sun set yesterday and rose today. When you woke up one morning and saw how much of life you have lived. Or looked around you and saw how much of life others nearby have lived. It starts with attending funerals and worrying about your own. It starts with saying goodbye to those who came before you, or those who walked alongside you and left you too soon, and understanding that they will never return to you now, but you may see them someday soon. It starts with letting go of what was and accepting what is, despite the grief and the pain and the hardship that may accompany it. But it also starts when someone new comes along, when someone is born, or when someone knocks on your door or taps you on the shoulder or just stops by to say hello. It ends, thusly, in the moments before they made your acquaintance, in the steps they took to come to you or vice versa. The past ends with a lesson, while the present begins with wisdom. It ends with memories and will begin with the moment new ones take shape. It ends when what happened is recorded for the history books and will begin with new happenings being cataloged for the next edition. It ends when you least expect it and begins when you're not looking. It begins with the inhale and ends with the exhale. The past ends in the moment you take stock of where you are standing, while the present begins with the first step forward. It ends yesterday and begins today.