Tomorrow Has Other Plans

Be careful how you look
at the man counting coins
outside the shop.

Today, he may have nothing
but dust on his shoes
and a name nobody remembers.

Tomorrow,
he might wake to a phone call
that changes the shape of his life.

That is how strange
this world can be.

A locked door can become
an open road.
An empty pocket can become
a pocket full of keys.

And you...

sitting comfortably tonight,
your bills paid,
your work secure,
your cupboards breathing with food,

do not imagine
that tomorrow has signed
a contract with you.

Jobs disappear.

Companies fold.

Money grows wings
when you are not looking.

One morning,
you may walk into the same office
and find your chair still waiting
but your name has vanished from it.

The coffee machine will hum.
The lights will come on.
People will carry on talking.

And somehow,
the world will continue
without asking whether
you are ready.

So be kind to the poor.

Not because poverty
makes someone holy,

but because life is a door
that swings both ways.

The person you look down on today
may be the person
you need tomorrow.

And the hand you refused to hold
may someday be the only hand
reaching toward you.

We are all standing
on a floor that moves.

Some of us simply
haven't felt it shift yet.

So keep your wealth
without letting it make you cruel.

Keep your success
without believing it makes you immortal.

And when fortune sits beside you
at the dinner table,

leave an empty chair.

Tomorrow may arrive
wearing someone else's face.

And tomorrow,

as always,

has its own plans.