It's always Now

Now is the only time there ever has been or will be.

The past is just the memory of previous Nows. Those are gone and you can't change them. Thinking about them is fine if you can learn something, or even just replay a pleasant event, but if you're just wallowing in memories then that's a waste of time. It's a waste of Now.

The future is Nows that haven't happened yet. You can plan for them, and there's nothing wrong with that, but you can't control them. You can't reach into the future and make it do what you want so spending time dreaming of the perfect future is a waste of time. It's a waste of Now.

Now is the only time there ever has been or will be. Don't fight against it by wishing it were different. Now is already here and it's too late for anything to change. The only thing we can do is accept the way things are and then use this Now to nudge future Nows so that maybe they'll be closer to what we want.

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I didn't use this bit but I like it:

Those future Nows are the product of an entire universe of events and thinking that you can control them is like thinking a single grain of sand can control the beach. All you can do is nudge things and hope it works out. And that's a fine thing to do, nudge away, I highly recommend it, but don't get caught up in a particular outcome because you're only one grain of sand.

Would “desert” be better than “beach”? I'm aware the metaphor is a bit broken in that grains of sand aren't typically thought of as active, but I think the visual image works to make the point.