I hope I'm better today than I was yesterday. I don't believe in

“I hope I’m better today than I was yesterday. I don’t believe in glory days or anything like that, so I think the best is tomorrow—or later this afternoon!” Thus spoke Edie Brickell, a voice of both humility and hope, who saw in the flow of time not decline, but renewal. Her words carry the laughter of wisdom, a quiet courage that refuses to dwell in what was, and instead gazes forward to what can yet be. In them lies an ancient truth: that life, when rightly lived, is not a monument to the past but a river that forever renews itself. Yesterday teaches, today blossoms, and tomorrow invites us still higher.

In every age, there are those who worship the “glory days,” who build altars to the past and mourn that their best lies behind them. But Brickell’s words are a rebuke to such despair. She reminds us that the present moment is alive, and the future is still unwritten. The wise know that each sunrise brings a new chance to begin again—to be kinder, truer, stronger, more compassionate than we were before. This is no empty optimism; it is a discipline of the soul. It is faith in the unseen work of growth, the slow unfolding of human goodness through time.

Even the ancients, who revered the past, understood this principle. The philosopher Heraclitus said, “You cannot step into the same river twice.” The waters of life are ever-moving, and we are ever-changing within them. To cling to what was is to drown; to flow with what is, and trust in what comes next, is to live. Brickell’s hope is that of the traveler who walks forward with joy, knowing that the road itself shapes her, that each step makes her wiser than the last. She does not mourn the days gone by; she honors them by becoming more than they made her.

Consider the story of Nelson Mandela, who spent twenty-seven years imprisoned on Robben Island. He could have looked backward, longing for the glory days of youth or freedom. But he chose instead to look ahead—to believe that the best of his life was not behind iron bars, but waiting beyond them. When he emerged, gray-haired but unbroken, he did not seek revenge; he sought renewal. His today was better than his yesterday, and his tomorrow—the dawn of a free South Africa—became a light for the world. His life, like Brickell’s wisdom, teaches that the spirit can always rise again, no matter how many years have passed.

To live by this truth is to embrace growth as the highest calling. Each day becomes a field for cultivation. We wake not to repeat, but to evolve—to polish the heart, to deepen the mind, to refine the soul. The one who clings to the past cannot see the beauty before them, for their gaze is turned backward. But the one who, like Brickell, hopes to be “better today than yesterday” becomes a vessel of renewal, a participant in life’s unfolding miracle. Such a one does not age in despair, but in grace, for they understand that improvement is the true measure of living.

And what is the illusion of the “glory days” but the fear that we have peaked too soon—that life’s greatest fire has already burned? But the flame of the spirit is not like a spark that fades; it is like the dawn that brightens hour by hour. Each afternoon, each encounter, each mistake is an invitation to burn more steadily. The ancient teachers said: “The wise do not lament the setting sun, for they see in it the promise of another dawn.” So too should we, remembering that the soul’s light does not dim with time—it deepens, if we tend it.

Therefore, remember this, my child: Do not dwell in glory days. Let your glory be this moment, and the next, and the one after that. Strive always to be better today than you were yesterday, and trust that the best is still to come—perhaps not tomorrow, but even later this very afternoon. For life rewards the heart that leans forward, not the one that looks back. Be patient with your becoming. Celebrate your growth, however small. And when the evening comes, you will rest not in nostalgia, but in peace—knowing that your best days have never ended, for they are always being born anew within you.