Life is a gift - Enjoy the present

Betty Ann Barr Boilesen

Life is a gift - Enjoy the present.

By Doug Boilesen, 2001

Yesterday's the past, tomorrow's the future, but today is a gift. That's why it's called the present. -- Bil Keane

I'm not sure if my mom saw the Bil Keane The Family Circus cartoon panel or read the quote but if there is a single saying you'd associate with her, it's probably "Life is a gift. Enjoy the present." She believed it and often repeated it.

The Family Circus by Bil Keane, August 31, 1994.

I don't remember this Bil Keane cartoon being taped onto her kitchen cabinet but that's where the important quotes she read in the newspaper or heard on the NBC's Today Show would go. If she could cut it out from its source she'd tape it to the inside of the kitchen cabinet. Other clippings would collect in the drawer of her reading desk or she'd write them down (often on a recipe card).

Mom would also share some quotes at dinner or perhaps just keep them to think about. I think they provided a richness to her day and in were themselves gifts to her, like ripe apples on the tree that she had just picked. If she did pick Keane's apple it became her delicious apple crisp recipe for the rest of us.

Other quotes that made it to her kitchen cabinet door or notebook:

"Living in the moment means letting go of the past and not waiting for the future. It means living your life consciously, aware that each moment you breathe is a gift."--Oprah Winfrey

"The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly." --Buddha

"Yesterday is a canceled check; tomorrow is a promissory note; today is the only cash you have. Spend it wisely." --Anonymous

"This is the day that the Lord hast made.."It's a passage that Betty Ann Barr Boilesen believed to be true from her early childhood until her last day.

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