The Little Things? The Little Moments? They

You Are Only Here Now; You're Only Alive In This Moment.

When We Let Go Of Wanting Something Else To Happen In This Moment, We Are Taking A Profound Step Toward Being Able To Encounter What Is Here Now. If We Hope To Go Anywhere Or Develop Ourselves In Any Way, We Can Only Step From Where We Are Standing. If We Don't Really Know Where We Are Standing—a Knowing That Comes Directly From The Cultivation Of Mindfulness—we May Only Go In Circles, For All Our Efforts And Expectations. So, In Meditation Practice, The Best Way To Get Somewhere Is To Let Go Of Trying To Get Anywhere At All.

Karma Is Often Wrongly Confused With The Notion Of A Fixed Destiny. It Is More Like An Accumulation Of Tendencies That Can Lock Us Into Particular Behavior Patterns, Which Themselves Result In Further Accumulations Of Tendencies Of A Similar Nature... But Is Is Not Necessary To Be A Prisoner Of Old Karma.

Most Of The Time, If You're Not Really Paying Attention, You're Someplace Else. So Your Child Might Say, "daddy, I Want This," And You Might Say, "just A Minute, I'm Busy." Now That's No Big Deal-we All Get Busy, And Kids Frequently Ask For Attention. But Over Your Child's Entire Youth, You May Have An Enormous Number Of Such Moments To Be Really, Fully Present, But Because You Thought You Were Busy, You Didn't See The Opportunities These Moments Presented. . . . People Carry Around An Enormous Amount Of Grief Because They Missed The Little Things.

My Father Was A World-class Scientist And My Mother Was A Prolific Painter. I Could See That My Parents Had Completely Different Ways Of Knowing And Understanding The World, And Relating To It. My Father Approached Things Through Scientific Inquiry And Exploration, While My Mother Experienced Things Through Her Emotions And Senses.