I will never forget the day when my mother and I were crossing Clinton avenue on a busy afternoon. Traffic was moving fast and we were far from the crossing lane. We were late for my after school program and I wanted to get there as fast as I could. I thought if I can just run across the street and make it to the other side, I can make it on time. As I was about to run, my mother yelled out, stop, but in Spanish. I stopped and told my mother, “we’re late” and that’s when she told me, “mejor tarde que nunca” or “better late than never.”
Although I agree with the point she was making; it’s better to take the long route even if it makes us late rather than to try to go through the shortcut and die trying to get there on time, I don’t necessarily agree with the notion that that is the way we should view and live life.
Late can lead to never.
I have seen many people wait until situations get out-of-hand, then it’s too late to-right their wrongs. In the medical field, I saw patients who waited too long to change their lifestyles and paid a heavy price for waiting. Maybe they were smokers and were told by their doctors to quit smoking. Perhaps they were alcoholics and told to stop drinking or overweight and told to change their diet. Some of these patients failed to listen with the thought; I’ll quit later because late is better than never. For some, late meant lung cancer, for others, liver failure, and others, diabetes. For these patients, late means severe sickness and no possible way to return to a healthy life. Late means death. Death equals never.
Don’t wait for later to make things right, because later is not guaranteed. If you put it off for later, later may never come! So ask yourself these questions.
What do I need to change?
Who do you need to forgive?
Identify it! Forgive! Don’t wait for later, do it NOW! Late is not better than never!
As Gilbert Thinketh 