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A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Steve Taylor.

Good Morning.

I've always been fascinated by how time seems to flow at different speeds in different situations. For example, it seems to go slowly when we're bored, and seems to speed up as we get older. Once I had a car accident, in which a few seconds seemed to stretch out into minutes.

However, I've always been aware that in a sense time doesn't really exist. The future never comes. We just create it in our minds, when we anticipate events or make plans. Likewise, the past no longer exists. It only remains in our memory, or in recordings of events. We are always in the present, even when we think about the future or the past.

There’s something liberating about this. If we’re ever worried about the future, or feel negative emotions, like bitterness or regret about the past, we can always reorientate ourselves in the present. We can focus our attention on our surroundings, on the people and objects around us, and on our perceptions and experiences. As the present becomes more real, our worrying thoughts will fade away.

Or as I have expressed it poetically:

When the future is full of dread
and the past is full of regret
where can we take refuge, except in the present?

When maelstroms of tormenting thoughts
push back the barricades of our sanity
the present is the calm centre, where we can rest.

And slowly, as we rest there
niggling thoughts and fears dissolve
like shadows shrinking under the midday sun
until we don’t need refuge anymore.

So today, let’s orientate ourselves in the present – the calm centre between the future and the past.

Blessings.

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