Now

One day you look around and you realize this is it. This is where you are. You are not going to get any younger.  You aren’t going to lose all that weight. You are not going to write that book.  You are not going to pick the hot stock. This is as good as it gets.  In fact, the ride only gets bumpier from here. 

So what is there to do? I guess you suck it up and you assess where you stand.  Are you a winner or a loser.  Have you created as much as you have destroyed.  What have you killed and what have you saved. Then, and only then, after the accounting is done you have to accept that this is all transient and has no meaning. The only meaning is in the now. 

Whatever we have amassed will be disbursed.  Whatever we have built will decay.  Whatever we have said, be it trivial or on par with the thoughts of Aristotle, well it will fade eventually into nothing.  What we have loved will die. But don’t panic, it is okay.

Acceptance. Equanimity. Compassion. Understanding.  These concepts are the key. All of us exist in a condition of pain. Still, we are charged with living in loving kindness. By letting our pain not play the center role in our life we are freed to make this moment, this breath, better for you and better for me.

We are like the monkey trapped with our hand in the gourd because we won’t let go of the banana inside.  If we let it go, if we let it be, we are freed to act with love and mercy.  The past belongs to the past.  The future is nonexistent. Make this now, this what is reality, better for all.