The reflection hung on the garage wall for only a few moments. I almost missed it. My camera helped preserve it for you to see.

   Your Book of Now has only the current chapter. Your Book of Moments holds unnumbered words. Both sit in your Library of Meaning.

   How long is a moment? A minute? A second? Can it be measured?

   This moment we call "now" is all you will ever have. 

   Claim it. Live now with full presence.

   How? 

   Sometimes the "watcher" within us waves a warning finger. Are you living fully or anesthetizing yourself? We have seen the boredom of the subway rider, the tired eyes of the department store clerk checking her watch. 

   Some strive to "kill time." Even during pain why would we ever want to "kill" the only thing we have? 

   There are manifold ways to absent ourselves. That is the core of the quote, "We must wake ourselves unnumbered times a day." 

   "Now" has enemies.

   The first is routine. The trick we call "Time" piles one moment atop another. How can we show up for each? One at a time. Routine creates robot living that blocks the uniqueness of moments. 

   Speed is another foe. Rushing from one moment to the next tramples the richness of each so that none are lived. 

   I love how cameras "capture" moments. The photograph enriches that moment when I use more "nows" to dive deeper into the picture.

  "Now" will always frustrate those who seek to cage it. There are solutions.

   Thomas Traherne (1636-1674) wrote, "This moment exhibits infinite space, but there is a space also wherein all moments are infinitely exhibited…Love is the true means by which the world is enjoyed."

   Once again we see. The worst enemy of our moments is not boredom or speed but fear. Love is the only path to a sweet Now.    

   Close your eyes & meditate for one minute. If you can extend that to twenty minutes twice a day you will discover a precious new page in your Book of Now. 

   Live love, not fear.

-Erie Chapman

Photograph by Erie