Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness and welcome to this brand new day. Sometimes we get up in the morning and we feel like this is just another day, right. But it's not just another day in your life. It's today. So just like laying down in cloud-watching or star gazing, you never see the same sky twice, because everything's constantly moving.

The weather's changing, the planet's rotating, the light's always changing. So every single time you look at the sky is a once in a lifetime event, a unique constellation of conditions that will never be witnessed again. And each day and each moment of our lives is like that too. Today is a once in a lifetime event that will never be lived again. But after many years of living, we tend to get used to a certain way of thinking, a certain way of being, a certain way of living.

And because of the weight of that past conditioning, we tend to feel like, you know, today's just like yesterday. We're the same person we've always been and we just kind of go through the motions. But if we're looking at today through the eyes of awareness, then we start to see actually there's a sense of movement and flow to this moment, this day. And there's a constantly changing quality to our mind and our life and everything, including ourselves is in constant flux. And looking through the eyes of awareness, we see that actually, even the person we thought we were, the identity that felt fixed and stable is not as fixed as we once thought it was.

When we pay close enough attention to life, we see the transient nature of it. And therefore we understand the preciousness of it. We never see the same moment twice. We never live the same day twice. It may look similar to another moment or day, but it's always completely unique and unrepeatable.

I once spoke to a man on a meditation retreat who said he'd been profoundly changed by a near-death experience. So what he said to me was he had no fear of death anymore. But he was also more acutely aware than ever of the preciousness of life. He said he understood that this was the only life, the only time that he was going to live this life with his daughter. And this was the only time he was going to live this day.

And so he viewed each day as a, as sacred as a, a being born and a dying, at the start and the end of each day. So, if we can understand the preciousness of each day, we can have more gratitude for it, more presence and more meaning in our lives. So today just reminding yourself again and again that today is not just another day in your life. It's today. It's fresh, it's mysterious, it's fleeting, and it will never be lived again.

So thank you for your practice and your presence here with us. And inviting you now to settle in for today's meditation.