University of Phoenix held our graduation ceremony this past weekend. Our graduation speaker was the same as two years ago, Bertice Berry. Bertice is a great speaker who does many UOP graduation ceremonies each year.
In her speech this year, she mentioned how each day is a clean slate. She described this with a beautiful story, which I will (with many apologies to her) proceed to butcher: Just before Bertice’s mother passed away, her mom was struggling with what to leave her. She didn’t have much money or many valuable possessions. So she told Bertice that, after much thought, she was leaving her with “a clean slate.” When her mother died, she said that she was going to take with her all the emotional baggage, all the hurt and shame and pain of the generations before her, so that she could leave Bertice with a clean slate. She was going to take all of that past with her to the grave, yielding a fresh start for Bertice to do with whatever she chose.
Of course, this was much more inspirational and eloquent the way Bertice stated it, but I hope the point comes across to you the same way. I have been trying to remind myself of this each morning – today is a clean slate. Today is a new day, and regardless of what yesterday held, how great or terrible it was, today is fresh before me. It is a blank sheet of paper that I have yet to cover with writings. I haven’t yet spoiled it with scribbles, I haven’t yet created a masterpiece. It’s clean, perfect, and new.
I’m relishing that moment each day. The peace and quiet that sometimes only lasts for a millisecond before my own thoughts ruin it, or before the sound of the shower blasting on spoils it, or before the dog decides to scuttle across the floor and make noise. No matter what else happens throughout the day, I’m trying to remember to take that moment to thank God for another clean slate, to take a deep breath of a new day’s air, and to think about my blank chalkboard upon which I can write another day.