Read gently; let the words read themselves....

A reader like yourself who gets deeply into what you're absorbing can lose track of the outer world. It seems to disappear for this amount of time. This can be a very pleasant experience, because your inner world is the only important thing. You can be out of any particular place and time. Reading, you have the magic power of being in any place, in any time. You can travel back through time, you can float above the earth and watch it change. You can see it in its molten state, glowing with heat from the interior. Lava flows everywhere; it's good to hover far above it all.

Finally, rocks cool and float like rafts over the earth. You can see millions of years pass before the first clouds form and quickly vanish. Centuries drift by before clouds can form and stay. And more time before the first hint of rain. And more before it really happens. And it evaporates, carrying heat away. The earth must feel good now that the first water lays on the surface. In time, water flows toward what becomes ponds, now lakes, the sea, an ocean filled with warm water; with minerals, methane and ammonia. You can safely feel the energy of storms nearby, throwing electric charges through the empty air.

Chemicals form and reform and are changed by time, ice and the clay shores. You are free to float and observe it all; the planet's only privileged witness, in a time before words are invented to tell of it. You can float at ease in the fresh new ocean, watching the changing shapes and colors around you. Creatures grow and swim, changing to come into balance with other changes around them. Currents flow this way and that, without thought or effort, and carry you till, at last, it happens to approach the shore.

The bottom of the sea is now nearer to the top, and you see the wavering light from the upper world. You are now squeezed toward the light by the approaching shore, and touch the next world as water flows from the skin. Feeling stronger by the moment now, as time is your own. There is no thought of going back now, and that is good. Crawling up, there are mosses on the beach, and farther, tender plants. As you grow into the new world, you can walk past bushes. Now, taller, trees. Here there are changing shapes and colors, too; as you can see. The forest is warm and damp. The soil is deeper and the land climbs. Above the ocean, the sun is rising in brilliant color.

In the trees, noisy creatures fly and others jump around. Of those that jump, you can notice one that feels closest, and know how they live their lives a moment at a time, and make decisions, without words, one at a time. That creature is attracted to another in the next tree; it's all the same. They watch the sun rise and set ten thousand times, living a moment at a time.

A new generation is born and grows and lives a moment at a time, and watches the sun rise and set ten thousand times. Then, many generations --ten thousand-- are born and pass away. Fire is tamed, sails are raised, boats travel, you see wars and discoveries, history made by real people and written by those who won the wars. There are your own grand-parents, born, age zero, looking as helpless as all other babies. They grew, doing some of what they're told and rebelling against what seemed wrong for them. Your parents are born, age zero, looking helpless, and they grow, accepting some thngs and rebelling against others.

Now you can observe the time when you are born, age zero, and grow and learn and rebel. And now is the time when, in the mirror, you can first see the top of your head without jumping. Then with a stretch, your eyes. Now a steadier gaze, straight. Your shoulders move up into view, and more. You can float and observe the changing shapes and colors around you; time passes. There's something that Dad said. A fight with a classmate. Your first love. There's someone you'd forgotten. The houses around... Your face shows subtle changes. Things have happened in life, and you've grown with them and past them. The past is just an old movie, of interest but no concern. Your age passes 30 and 40, and you have gone thru changes at those ages and thru those places.

Time continues, and it's all right. Age 50, and you feel fitter than ever, and you've grown psychologically; you've matured. In the mirror, there are a few grey hairs, a few lil wrinkles, but they're balanced, because you wouldn't trade what you've learned for more of past troubled times. At age 60, you can still run and exercize, enjoying life more than ever. At 70, you see more grey hairs, but hardly notice or care. Life's good; you'd have hardly believed it. Are you a centimeter shorter than before? No matter. Good-lookin' face there in the mirror...

Time drifts to just normal speed here at age 85. There are decades in front of you,thanks to modern medicine; and there are robots to do the housework. In the mirror is a person still filled with vitality, living more simply and deeply than ever. Still ready to jog, having traded the ability to run for a great deal more wisdom. You've accumulated a vast amount of wisdom over the past 85 years.

You know there were things you did that you're glad you did; there are things you did that you're sorry you did. There are things you did not do that you're glad you didn't; and there are things you did not do that you'resorry you didn't. Within those things, and in all the things you've observed throughout history and your life, there is great wisdom.

You can feel that wisdom resting comfortably in the back of your mind now. If only you could give that to your younger self, what a difference it would have made... That person is sitting here, inside a book and on the other side of the mirror, ready, in fact eager to listen and hear. You will have the opportunity now that very few people of the 100 billion who have lived have had. You can send a message to that young person; to tell of the few things that are really important --it may be in words, it may be in images, it may be in pure feelings. Let the eyes drift now as a message is received and felt...

When you have finished, you'll be able to remember it all: the message; the far-flung trip thru time; observing the changes that formed the earth and yourself; the freedom you have... to become who you will be. Bring it all back with you. Now.