even the smallest things are beyond your control

Think of a merry-go-round, the kind you played on as a child. I can remember getting that thing going so fast I could barely hang on. But I remember that the closer I came to the middle of the merry-go-round, the easier it was to hang on. In fact, if at the middle on the hub, you could just sit there—hands free.

The present moment is like the center of the merry-go-round; it is the place of stillness where one can rest, even though life is raging all around. The moment we begin to live in the past or the future, we leave the center and are pulled to the outside where suddenly great energy is demanded of us to "hang on," so to speak. The more we give ourselves over to imagination, living and grieving over the past, or worrying and sweating about the future, the more we are likely to be tossed off the merry-go-round of life.

- Mark Mallett