Now

A language expert tells me that the Russian language uses one word—“настоящее” (nass-toh-YAH-she)—to signify both “present time” and “authentic.”

I don’t know whether the word was intended to convey deep insight, but we can nonetheless use it in this way. Many of us live most of our lives living with regret and pain—about the past—or with fear, which is about the future. But the past and future don’t really exist, except in our minds.

If we want to live authentic lives, we must be who we really are. We must live in the present, without the tortured distortions of past and future. Only love can free us from the past and future, so we can live in the present, the only place where we can truly live.