Since one of our worst fears as humans is of growing old, it’s important to keep in mind the simple truth that nothing is ever old, and that all things are always brand new. This is a rather startling statement, because oldness seems to be all around us, and most of us constantly think about it. When we look in the mirror, or when we put on shoes we’ve worn for three years, or when we remember events that occurred many years ago, the sense of oldness can seem overpowering. Life, we think, progresses from newness to oldness, from youth to old age, from freshness to decrepitude. It seems to most of us like an invincible law. Happily, however, there’s a far more powerful law that states that all power resides in the present moment, and that every present moment is brand spanking new. When we examine the present moment, we find that, at bottom, it consists of a thought, an idea, a state of awareness, and these can never be old. Even the thought “I am very old” is totally new. We may say, “But I’ve had that thought many times before” ... and even that is a new idea in the fresh, new-born present. The bottom line is that we can’t escape newness because we can’t escape the new present moment. In order for something to be “old”, it has to be a material thing that has passed through time from the past to the present – but there are no material “things” because there is only this state of awareness in this present moment. Behind all our worries about growing old or living in a world full of oldness is the ubiquitous, supreme, and omnipotent present, which is always thoroughly fresh and full of youth. The truth is that newness is an inescapable law.