Today, I saw a field of grape vines glimmer in the sunshine. It was due to light reflecting off a shiny, manufactured object, in an effort to scare away birds from the grapes. Almost every grape that is grown in South Australia becomes wine.

Apparently, it is some of the best stuff in the world, but I'm not a wine aficionado; I just know what I like and what I don't.

Today, I drove through the McLaren Vale wine region in South Australia; and didn't touch a single drop of wine while among vineyards, tasting rooms, and an incredible lunchtime stop at an amazing restaurant.

I took this photo in one of the wine tasting rooms; a lovely old barn; with deep, deep cracks in its floor. The type of cracks that are nice to look at, but probably also threaten the structural integrity of the very Earth.

In that same room, I learned that one of the products that they made was no longer available. It was a quality, unique, and fantastic product. What was once a readily accessible, consumer good; was now a treasure; something to savior; and something that in my mind's eye; would become myth.

That won't be for a while - I have three bottles of it at my house; and it'll last me a while, but it did get me back to thinking about how all things, no matter how sturdy they may appear, are ephemeral.

The bottle of one particular variety of wine may no longer be available. Those cracks in that concrete are deepening, and widening with each passing year. Time wages its war on everything.

No matter what is produced, what is manufactured, what is treasured, preserved, or protected; one day; will cease to be. This may seem like a primitive, depressing view of the future; but to me, its always been a realistic one. If you can come to terms with the fact that everything around you will decay, fall apart, or wear out; there's little in life that you can be disappointed about .

As a result, there's probably even less stuff that can irk, anger or upset you; except for that sentimental connection to object, place, thing, or experience. If you're still reading at this point, thank you. Please, continue; as I feel as though my big point is coming next.

There's one thing for certain about the powers of the universe - heat, light, energy, gravity, the chemical bonds that hold stuff together; a concept called entropy. That means that as the passage of time occurs, or we observe something, we increasingly witness it become less and less stable.

The same thing is happening among society, and in all the nations of the Earth. In all political parties, and the things that language enables us to label as "groups", "communities", or cliques.

There's no sense of a common cause; and a fear of advancement, progression; and a lust for the status quo, or the days that once were.

Those days are never coming back.

Leave the past in the past. You can't influence it. You can't change it. You can reflect on it, grow from it; and even be saddened or reminded of joy by it.

What you can influence is what is in front of you. The time that you have before you is your only real asset. Everything else: books, precious metal, crypto, your toaster, your fork, your fingernails; everything you see around you will only exist within memory, an artifact generated by the mind, and a disease spread by the Earth's voyage around a star.

When people say don't worry about the small stuff, don't.

Don't worry about the big stuff either; it will still be waiting for in the coming days, months, years, or it won't be. Just be. Worry about the now, and the next moment - they're the only ones you can actively influence.