Sometimes life presents situations where extraordinarily swift action is needed. It's almost midnight. One rushes with the wife upstairs to wake the daughters up. They quickly realize the importance of the situation. Back downstairs, wrap the daughters in warm blankets, and out into the cold and dark night. Just like planned. Just like promised.
The northern lights' green belt spreads across the black canvas of the night sky. Their shimmering, slowly shifting movement is mesmerizing, whispering silent words of primordial wonder and awe. The dark silhouettes of the surrounding trees reach upward, like yearning to greet an old friend after a long separation. Together, the night's darkness and the shimmering sky create a welcoming ambiance, inviting all beings to share their subtle beauty.
The whole situation was planned months ago—one promised the daughters to wake them up at first sight of the mystical northern lights, even in the middle of the night. The waiting was long, yet at the moment, while gazing at the breathtakingly elegant luminous dance in the sky, no time divides the promise and delivery.
When looking back at life or expecting something in the future, time appears to be a bridge that must be first crossed—a journey one has to commence to sail through memories or arrive at a place of expectation. However, when the experience of time is investigated more closely, it will quickly dawn that nothing has been crossed and no journeys must be taken. One is always and forever here and now, in the ever-present flowing moment.
At one present moment, one's young eyes look forward to a future yet to be lived. At another present moment, one's weary old eyes look back at a life already lived. Time might seem to separate those two moments, but a short inquiry into reality reveals no time like it didn't exist at all. Instead, the inquiry reveals being that embraces all present moments. This being is the heart and substance of every moment. Recognizing it makes all questions of time void. No words like "still, yet, then, when, before, after..." can fit within this being or describe it in any way. It's not achievable in time or more understandable over time. No matter what past burdens one still carries or what future becomings one anticipates, being in the present moment turns those mental images into faint shimmering against the background of empty spaciousness.
The northern lights shift and dance in perfect contrast with the infinity of the black space. Their green shimmer reflects in the daughters' wonder-filled eyes. Something timeless and intensely connected to being resides in the child-like wonder of the curious happening called the present moment.