Rear View Mirror

I try not to drive forward while looking through my rear view mirror.  I don't mean a glance to see what is there.  I mean the actual focus on something behind me, all the while ignoring what is in front of me.  Silly, and dangerous, right?  But how many of us ignore what is in front of us while dwelling on the past, whatever the past might be.  We are then living or reliving the past while missing reality.  Just as you might ride off a highway, you ride off the path of your life by not living in the now.  Fantasy, resentment, remorse, wishful thinking, remaking past mistakes into actions that benefit and show us as wonderful are just some of the things we can do to avoid the now.  My spiritual life is in the now.  My mind may revisit a past, real or imagined.  If it would help me to live a better now, that would be good.  But most often it is just escape...for me.  Memories can be beneficial things when we can take time to chew on them, alone or with help.  They cannot be the main course of my day.  I will starve if that is the only food for my soul.