"Today was like a shadow. It lurked behind me. It's now gone forever. Why is it that time is such a difficult thing to befriend?" ~ Mary Casey Describe the shadow of yesterday... what is gone forever?

Gosh, this prompt uncovers an Achilles Heel—wallowing in the past. I go through phases when I spend a lot of time re-examining days gone by. I can open a photo album, read old letters, or simply revisit memories and before I know it, a half a day will be gone.

What disturbs me is the sense of melancholy that often washes over me when I indulge myself in getting lost in the past. Don’t get me wrong—the wistfulness isn’t caused by regrets or reliving bad experiences--my memories are happy, satisfying ones for the most part. Instead, here are some of the questions posed by that incessantly anxious voice in my head:

• Could the best part of my life be over?
• Look how young I looked then; did I appreciate that time in my life as much as I should have?
• Will I still have opportunities to make memories that rank right up there with those in my past? Or are my best memories relegated to well worn photo albums and hazy corners in my mind?

It’s ironic, isn’t it? I spend time worrying that the best days of my life are over rather than using my time to get out there and make these the best days of my life. I’m reminded of a co-worker at a company where I used to work. Jerry, a non-smoker, worried obsessively about the work time wasted by his colleagues who smoked. He developed a chart on his computer and constantly monitored the windows to catch his co-workers outside smoking, recording how long they spent on their nicotine habits. I don’t think it ever occurred to him how much work time he was wasting by auditing everyone else!

So it all boils down to making time my friend rather than my enemy and putting the past in its place. Has anyone written a “how-to” manual for that?