It's important, while we're here, to remember to live life one day at a time.

Later on in our journeys, we will be consumed with our significant others, our kids, our jobs...but right now is one of the few times in our lives we can return home at the end of the day and shut our minds off.

I see this in my own life this week. I've got a friend coming in from Texas on Wednesday night who will stay for a few hours before turning around and leaving again. A new class at a new university beginning on Thursday night. And a Christmas party with the new co-workers on Saturday night.

Are these things to prepare for? Absolutely. Print out driving directions, figure out itineraries. But worry about? There wouldn't be any point. I can only really control what's right in front of me this moment, and (partially) what paths I choose to take, which will affect the future.

To abandon the present moment in a vain effort to keep pushing forward would be to sacrifice both the present and the future. Let's always remember to be completely where we are.

The Why

Let me just begin by saying that this blog is not exactly about a "crisis," at least not yet, but I'm taken with the phrase. Maybe it's come from a me-first generation. Maybe it's because we have new media that allow us to express ourselves in ways that have not really been seen or heard until now. Maybe it's the idea that a lot of us coming out of college are hitting walls because of the economy. Whichever, the quarter-life crisis is very rarely recognized to exist or properly called what it is.

The fact is, poking our heads out into this bright world is a little daunting, primarily because none of us have ever done it before. Unless we followed a road set before us by a mother or father or a college recruiter, our life is a blank slate.

I challenge you to see this blank slate not as something that must immediately be filled with lists and pictures or any other sort of content, but as a space of endless possibility. For the answers to the big questions: What is my calling? Who am I going to serve in this world? Where will I live? Who will I marry? Or the small questions: What kind of car am I going to drive? What sort of house or apartment will I live in? Will I have the resources to travel?

So much for the introduction. We will explore what we are dealing with exactly within the next few days.