When Einstein's lifelong friend Michele Besso died in March 1955, Einstein wrote to his family: "Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. For us believing physicists, the distinction between past, present, and future only has the meaning of an illusion, though a persistent one."

Einstein died five weeks later.

Physics doesn't recognize "now" as special. The present has no privileged status in the equations.

And yet, he still wrote the letter. He still reached for connection in the moment he had. The physicist who knew time was an illusion still chose to spend his remaining time loving someone across the boundary of it.

That's a paradox worth sitting with. The present moment may be an illusion. It's also the only place where the letter gets written.

Thank you for the reminder, Mindful Living.