When you start paying attention, you realize that most great spiritual teachers are fundamentally saying the same things: Stop trying to control what’s out of your control. What you think, you create. And perhaps most importantly: be present.

We mere mortals seemingly can’t help but to wish we could return–at least temporarily–to the past. When we aren’t craning our necks backwards, we’re fretting about the future.

We’re pulled away from the present, too, by the distraction of our screens and our endless work obligations. Tragically, we miss so much of what’s unfolding directly in front of us. We squander time we have now with those we love most.

Nearly all of the clutter occupying people’s homes is tied up in their over-investment in the past and their fears about the future. Holding onto things from a bygone era is an attempt to hold onto a time we cannot go back to. Holding onto what we fear you might desire in the future is an attempt to stave off future discomfort. Both thought patterns ensure our spaces and lives are filled with things that do not actively serve us now.

In the present moment, our wants and needs are finite. Moment to moment, we really don’t need all that we may keep to live happily and well.

The magic of the present moment is that it is always with us, inviting us to participate fully. 

Now–right now–we can let go, even for a little while, of our past-sorrow and our future-fear, and focus our awareness on the present.

We can ask ourselves: “What do I need now?” And, “What excites me now?” And, “Do I have enough for now?”

What was cannot be recaptured or altered, heartbreaking as that may be. And what will be cannot be predicted. But now, now we know. Now we can cruise though. Now we can feel alive. Now, we can find reasons to feel good.

We can be, if not all here, all now, at least mostly here, mainly now. More and more, every day.