Sometimes, we all leave this moment.

We leave what is happening right here and now because we are busy running toward the future or thinking about the past.

Sometimes, we are also busy thinking about the now. And that may be the biggest trap for people on the spiritual path (myself included) because there is a tendency to want to understand what we are experiencing in a conceptual way.

Many of us want to understand what is going on and why we feel the way we do – because we have experienced that understanding so many times along our paths as truths have been revealed to us. We also often want to see the meaning or purpose behind why things are happening the way they are in our lives, and many of us want to know how they fit into the bigger picture.

That understanding has its time and place. And if there is an understanding or insight to gain from what we are experiencing, it usually shows up when we let ourselves be and experience.

If we focus too much on understanding and do it too quickly, we miss our lives and the experiences themselves. We skip over the step where we experience life in its fullness, where we feel our emotions and experience grief, sadness, helplessness, happiness, awe, or wonder.

So, if we try to understand or shift our perspective about things too fast, that shift in perspective becomes another escape from this precious life. It takes us away from life itself – from this moment and what we are experiencing, because we are so busy trying to figure it all out.

We miss the space in which it all happens, where we feel and experience life.

And that space is where the magic happens – the magic that is our life.