present

You cannot change the past in the future, unless you begin in the present.

Everything that humans want or desire or hope for, every kind of external fetish no matter how remote or minor that they may premise some key part of their happiness upon, is a nerve that can be tweaked, a fear that can be toyed with -- even by oneself. Most of the "present" in human life is really subjective projections of a kind of future that one needs to believe in, in order to stave off despair or futility or disillusionment, etc. We live most of our lives in an unwitting subjunctive mood, in the unrecognized modulation from actualities into the possibilities of an always-intoxicating wish-world.

We are vulnerable to fear only when we leave the present.  If I drift into the past, my regrets surge up, my memories of failing and forsaking.  If I shift into the future, I meet with doubt and delusion, fear of what's to come, what I'm not capable of controlling.  It's in the present moment that I belong.

Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is a mystery.
Today is a gift

Pick the day.  Enjoy it - to the hilt. The day as it comes. People as they come... The past, I think, as helped me appreciate the present, and I don't want to spoil any of it by fretting about the future.

"When are we going to get going?" Chris says.
"What's your hurry?" I ask.
"I just want to get going."
"There's nothing up ahead that's any better than it is right here."

I don't ever want to make taking pictures into another way of saying 'Here I am'.  Because I'm as here as I want to be.

We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.

Fear of future is a waste of the present.

So be true to life by being true to your inner purpose. As you become present and thereby total in what you do, your actions become charged with spiritual power. P 269