I have been naming days all my life, but I never realized it. I used to do it at night, after the day was done. If nothing too challenging or painful had happened, I would name the day “good.” Otherwise, I would name it (more or less) “bad.” It all depended on the circumstances.
Now I’m learning to do it differently. Instead of waiting to see what the day brings, I name it early in the morning, when it is fresh and new. For instance, I might name the day “thanks and praise.” No matter what happens as the day unfolds, the name doesn’t change. It is like a compass, reorienting me over and over again.
Sometimes, especially when the going gets rough, I rename the day: I give up on “thanks and praise” and start to live as if the day were called “complaint and drudgery” or “fear and dread.” That’s okay, though, because I’ve learned a secret: I can hit the reset button and start the day over any time I choose, even if it’s eight o’clock at night.
“It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to Your name. . . .” Psalm 92:1
“Every time we make a choice we are turning some deep and inner part of ourselves, the part of us that chooses, into something a little different than it was before. . . . [W]e are slowly turning this deep and inner part of ourselves into something that is in harmony with God and with God’s purposes in the world, or into something that is contrary to them. Each of us at each moment is progressing one way or the other.” Br. David Vryhof