It was not with a little bit of shock that I noticed the man perusing the shelves next to me in the little London bookshop was Michael Caine, the actor.

He was tall and striking and probably more than a little bit annoyed to find a gauche tourist staring at him, mouth agape, from about 18 inches away. He left the store in a hurry and, gauche tourist that I am, I followed at what I hoped would be a discreet distance, discreet, that is, for a gauche tourist.

It was simply wonderful to watch the reactions of the normally prim and proper Londoners as they passed by Caine on the busy sidewalk and then suddenly stop and realize who that high, handsome man was.

A combination of excitement and disappointment was the actor’s legacy to the hundreds of folks who passed by him and only later comprehended who they had just seen.

Such a phenomenon is repeated by me often. Without Michael Caine, of course, but the disappointment is just as real.

Far too many times it is only in retrospect that I realize what was happening right under my nose.

I remember sitting in the audience as our child, now adult, graduated from high school. How could she have grown up so quickly? What happened to all those times we were to have spent together?

A friend drops dead from a coronary and I bemoan all the conversations we could have had, the fun we should have shared.

Sound familiar?

My hunch is that most of us suffer from such a malady.

"If only I’d known..."

"If only I’d known she would grow up so fast."

"If only I’d known he had a bum ticker."

"If only I’d known..."

There is a remedy to such lamentations, of course, but it means doing something many of us have great difficulty doing.

It is called living in the present.

It is accomplished by tuning in to what is going on all around us. The beauty of the moment as it were, or rather, as it is.

When we are so distracted by the hassles that mean so little or the disturbances that so quickly pass, we often fail to be aware of the joy that surrounds us.

Sadly, it is only in retrospect that we understand what we once had.

One of my favorite stories in my favorite book tells the tale of a brash young man who left home convinced that there must be a better life than the one he was leaving behind.

A few disappointments later, some sobering experiences under his belt and suddenly he realizes how good life once was.

That story had a happy ending and our story can too.

A happy ending begins with realizing how quickly the story is told. Enjoy each chapter as it unfolds. Every sentence...including the grammatical errors and the spelling mistakes.

"Carpe diem" is the ancient phrase that makes modern sense. Seize the day.

And begin today.