One of the posts in my archives that still gets visits often is, “Some of My Favorite Quotes From the Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” Yes, you read right. The search term that seems to get people to that post is one for Winnie the Pooh‘s, “what day is it?” phrase. I don’t try to make everything sound deep but I thought of a few reasons as to why people might search for that quote and attempted to highlight what it could mean. Here’s my take:
Winnie the Pooh: What day is it?
Piglet: It’s today
Winnie the Pooh: My favorite day
All ask
“What day is it?” is a question we all ask at one point or another. The need to know includes worry that we might have missed out on something important or that we ought to be seeing to at some point. It is a means to calibrate ourselves in relation to what we may or may not be looking forward to. One of the underlying reasons to ask is that we know how far we are from something and how much time we still have to prepare for it.
Today
Piglet doesn’t give a day of the week, as one would expect from him. He simply states, “It’s today”. One of the lessons from Piglet’s answer is the need to be in the present. Today people miss out on being present in many ways. A good example can be the impact of social media on daily life. For instance, you can miss out on the experience of a concert because you’re thinking about taking cool pictures to Instagram and share with your friends.
Or, consider the challenges bloggers face to stop looking at how they can make anything content. How much are we engaged with the present? The other significant challenge is not to allow the past to rob us of the present, or fixation with the future and its uncertainties to rob us of the job that can be today. (This is not to say we must not pay the future the attention it warrants).
My Favorite Day
This should challenge how we live and lead. How well do we revel in the today? Today must always be our favorite day. Yesterday is spent and we can plan to secure the future to an extent but in reality all we actually have is now. Today is all we have to define tomorrow. After all, we only get one day at a time. So it might as well be our favorite day.
If you haven’t already, check out: Some of My Favorite Quotes From the Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
What is your favorite Winnie the Pooh quote and why?