September Column – 2026

Happy September, my friends!!!!

As we come into the holiday season, I wanted to take a step back from my usual column and write about family—the importance of recognizing the little moments…

The Gift of Now

What if we stopped worrying about all the days ahead and simply lived this one?

There is something about family that binds us together in a way nothing else can. From the moment our children enter our lives, a part of our heart no longer belongs entirely to us.

We worry about them. We worry when they are sick. We worry when they are struggling. We worry when they make decisions we don’t understand. We worry when they leave home, when they fall in love, when they become parents themselves.

And sometimes, even when everything is going well, we still worry.

That is the strange bargain of love, isn’t it?

The same people who can bring us our greatest happiness can also give us our greatest fears.

We spend so much of our lives looking ahead.

Will they be okay? Will they find happiness? Will they make the right choices? Will we have enough time?

But tomorrow doesn’t exist yet—yesterday is gone—and the present is all we have.

And then, almost without realizing it, we can spend today worrying about tomorrow. I know I do.

The only part of our lives we can actually hold is now, because now is all that is truly real…

I have come to believe that perhaps one of the greatest lessons life teaches us is that we should not allow our love for the people we care about to become so consumed by worry that we forget to enjoy them.

Listen to your children while they are talking.

Laugh with them.

Call them just because you want to hear their voice.

Sit beside the person you love.

Put down the phone.

Look around the table.

Notice the ordinary moments.

Because one day, we may look back and realize that those ordinary moments were never ordinary at all.

They were our life.

My father taught me many things during his lifetime. Some lessons were spoken. Others were simply learned by watching him live.

And perhaps the greatest lesson is this:

Life is not measured only by the years we are given, but by how fully we live the moments within them.

Family will always bring responsibility. It will bring fear. It will bring disagreements, disappointments, sacrifices, and sleepless nights.

But it will also bring laughter, forgiveness, memories, pride, and a kind of love that cannot really be explained.

We cannot protect the people we love from every hardship.

We cannot make every decision for our children.

We cannot control the future.

But we can be present.

We can love them today.

We can tell them what they mean to us today.

We can appreciate the people sitting beside us today.

Perhaps that is what living in the present really means.

It doesn’t mean forgetting yesterday or refusing to think about tomorrow.

It means refusing to sacrifice today to either one.

There will always be another problem to solve.

Another bill to pay.

Another worry waiting around the corner.

Another reason to say, “I’ll enjoy it when things settle down.”

But life rarely settles down.

There is always something.

So perhaps we should stop waiting for the perfect day.

Perhaps the perfect day is simply the day we are living.

This moment.

This breath.

This conversation.

This family.

These people.

Here.

Now.

Because someday, the things we worry about today may no longer matter.

But the moments we failed to appreciate may be gone forever.

So hold your family a little closer.

Forgive a little faster.

Laugh a little more.

Worry a little less.

Love a little more.

And when you find yourself thinking about everything that could happen tomorrow, gently remind yourself:

Tomorrow will have its own time.

Today is ours.

Live it.

Love it.

Be present for it.

Because in the end, we don’t get to keep the days.

We only get to live them.

And perhaps the greatest gift we can give the people we love—and ourselves

Happy September,

Sir Raymond Winters