Look not to the past, for then you follow a shadow. Looking to the past is the same as following it. Follow Me. I am the Present. I am Now.

Looking to the future is jumping ahead. You cannot live ahead. You can only live now. Whether your eyes stare ahead, or behind, you are missing the splendor of the present.

Do you think splendor is missing from the present? What could be missing but your awareness of Me?

Awareness is not words from the intellect.

Awareness is a furbishing in your heart.

Your heart lives in the moment.

It beats the drums of My love.

Longing is your intellect pulling on your heart.

You think it's your heart, but your heart knows better.

You know better, only sometimes you are persuaded.

When you think something else is better than your heart, you have persuaded yourself.

This moment is your moment.

This is the one.

Here it is. Given to you. Pressed upon you. Yours to look at and use as you will.

You have been given a great masterpiece.

The same masterpiece has been given to all.

Accept it.

Do you question its authenticity?

This moment is an authentic moment for you, but perhaps you think it is nothing but a doodle and not worth much. Then it is worth what you think because its value to you is that which you put on it.

Great art has been tossed aside because someone didn't know its value. And it also has been picked up by someone else who liked it. Someone saw something in it that someone else did not. The masterpiece was not different. The eyes of the beholders were different.

Behold the treasure before you.

We could say that this moment is your canvas, and you paint upon it. We could also say that it is already painted, and in this moment the picture flashes upon it, but, of course, you have to be looking.

Or consider this moment a pool of water. You can look at it from a distance or you can dive into its depth and come out with a fish in your hand. In any case, you will get wet only if you go into the water.

Do you choose to live your life in the increments of its moments, or do you prefer to ford it away from you? Do you prefer to desist? Do you prefer to wait?

Consider that you have been served a meal. You look at it and think something is missing. And you wait for what you thought was missing before you decide to eat. The table gets cleared before you have eaten. And then the table is set again and new food is served, and you yearn for something that was on the table the time before and isn't now.

You do not want to be so particular about life.

You can relish all the tastes on your table, for it is life that is served you.

You can paint a masterpiece with whatever colors are before you, or you can be selective of what colors you will paint with, but that causes delay, and you will have missed the masterpiece you could have painted only then and not later.

The sunlight hits the water this unique way only at this moment, and then the sun alights differently.

The tide comes in, and the tide goes out.

The water laps at the shore.

Put your feet into this water.

This is the perfect moment.

This perfect moment has been spread out for you like a blanket on the sand for you to lie down on. Don't step around it, but avail yourself of it. Avoid not the water nor the blanket nor the sand. Avoid not what is before you, because it is I Who is before you.