This past week I finally finished The Office. I know, I'm a little behind with everything, since it's been almost three years since the series finale aired, but I never watched it as an actual TV show. I only watched an episode here or there. So I finally decided to watch it from the very beginning to the very end, and man, did I binge it!

Once I made it to the finale, I reached a sort of epiphany about life, based on what certain characters said about their experiences with the film crew filming their lives for ten years:

“Every day when I came into work, all I wanted to do was leave. So why in the world does it feel so hard to leave right now?” ~ Darryl

“It all seems so very arbitrary. I applied for this job because they were hiring. I took a desk in the back because it was empty. But… No matter how you get there or where you end up, human beings have this miraculous gift to make that place home.” ~ Creed

“I’m happy all this was filmed so I can remember everyone and what we did. I worked for a paper company all these years, and I never wrote anything down.” ~ Phyllis

“I sold paper at this company for 12 years. My job was to speak to clients on the phone about quantities and types of copier paper. Even if I didn’t love every minute of it, everything I have, I owe to this job. This stupid, wonderful, boring, amazing job.” ~ Jim

“I spent so much of my time here at Dunder Mifflin, thinking about my old pals, my college acapella group. The weird thing is, now, I’m exactly where I wanna be. I got my dream job at Cornell, and I’m still just thinking about my old pals, only now they’re the ones I made here. I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.” ~ Andy

My epiphany is this: Life moves forward, whether you are aware of it or not. So appreciate every moment to the best of your abilities.

Just like Jim, Andy, Darryl, Phyllis and Creed, we all have the opportunities to see the beauty of life through everyday occurrences. For these five characters, their realization is that they were so focused on the small parts that they forgot about the big pieces such as how the job they held in the office changed their characters and what they found meaning in.

For example, when Andy says, “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.”

To me, this is where I lost it. When we spend too much time focusing on our past, we forget about the current places we are and the memories we’re making now. For Andy, he spent so much time reliving the “glory days” at Cornell during his time at Dunder Mifflin that after moving on, he realized that now, those same “glory days” are the ones from Dunder Mifflin.

I think Andy’s point strikes a chord in us because we understand his wish and desire. If we knew we were living the good old days before they left, then we would appreciate them more or get more out of them. But the thing is, we can still appreciate today as if it already is a good old day. We don’t have to wait for today to pass before appreciating it for what it is!

 “This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Ps 118.24).

“In the day of prosperity, be joyful, and in the day of adversity, consider, God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.” (Ec 7.14).

Practically, this could be implemented in many different ways. But the way that I encourage you to start with, which I will begin doing, is keeping a journal of every day. Write out the occurrences that took place that day, no matter big or small, positive or negative. You would be surprised at the things you find out after a week! The small parts of each day that you completely forgot about. After a year, you look back and realize everything you took for granted made you all the better a year later.

  “Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day it its own trouble.” (Mt 6.34). 

Don’t live for tomorrow. Live for today, because you have no idea what you will miss about today, tomorrow.