If you can get yourself to a dark place at night
And look out into the far reaches of space
What you see is what was there in the distant past.
Where things are now can only be extrapolated.
The same is true seeing the sun in the sky
Not where it is now but where it was 10 minutes ago
Already below the horizon as we see it setting.
This moment now is proximate.
We live in the present
But much of what we experience
Happened in the past
Not just with our inner life.
Mind and matter in a kind of symmetry
Not the symmetry of quantum physics
Not the symmetry of spatial shapes
But as parallel universes.
If time is an arrow there’s no going back
But neither is there any leaving behind.
The past is with us and ever expanding
Being revealed as happening now.