The takeaway from 70+ years of wear and tear in wandering around the planet distills into three words: Less is more.  The kids say that it’s easy for me to say that now, having had a pretty good ride, all in all. Perhaps they have a point, but maybe not. It doesn’t matter for the purpose of this note.

From 20 on into the 40’s it was all about the money dream.  When that didn’t quench the fire and bring on Nirvana, it was about upping the game which included chasing power in its varied forms ranging from respect to influence to being the top dog in the penthouse suite.

Chasing the dream is one of those things that are guaranteed to keep your finely tuned earth-ego separated from what is. “What is” is never right or wrong, good or bad, yin or yang, or in fact, anything you can comprehend with your earth mind. It can never be part of your familiarity with Einstein’s Space-Time physics limited by the speed of light.  It’s simply Now, totally connected and unfolding without you or your thoughts on the matter.

In fact, every thought that arises as a “Me/Them/It-thing” is the very act that separates your world of disparate ideas from the holistic Now. The distance between your desire/regret for/of a particular outcome and “What is” will always be a measure of your emotional pain or joy. As long as there is a ‘You’ at the scene, there will be that pain, joy or separation which can be measured as the gulf between your desire and the “What is”. You can never know “What is” in your busy life of separation; all you know is always looking back with joy or regret, and forward with expectation, anxiety or fear.  So the takeaway tip for this navigation-free note is simply :

• If you are fearful or anxious, desire something or other at this moment, you are ahead of the Now.
• If you feel joy, regret or depression at this moment, you are behind the Now.
• If you are lost in a beautiful sunset or in the middle of a perfect golf swing – there is no you…. Congrats! You have touched the hem of Now … that is,  until you remember how great it was/is and feel the need to tweet. The trick is not thinking at all… in which case you have arrived then evaporated into the experience and are free to go… priceless!

-the old man