The nagual Carlos Castaneda appeared, looked carefully at his wristwatch, and exuberantly announced, "It's now! Let's go! We have an appointment — an appointment with eternity!"

The student hurried to cross the garden and stumbled over a root.

"What's your hurry?" Florinda asked.

"Well, I'm always running behind …"

"Helter-skelter," the nagual said softly, shaking his head. "We human beings have a funny way of looking at time. We are mesmerized by the past, always looking at time as it recedes from us. It's like standing at the back of the train, watching the tracks as we move away from them. Why not go to the front of the train, to face the oncoming time?"

"So we should look to the future, then?" the student asked.

"No, no, not the future — Here! Now! The oncoming time!"

The student looked down at the root, and followed it with her eyes to see how it met the trunk of an enormous tree.

She noticed that Florinda and the nagual were looking upward at the tree. She moved toward them.

As she faced the tree, she felt an ease, an expansion.

"Trees have a different speed," the nagual said. "You can sense it, if you slow down."

He paused.

"The trees know an energetic fact," he continued.

"What is that energetic fact?" the student asked quietly.

"The tree knows that at this very moment it is surrounded by eternity…The tree knows it can extend itself forever in any direction. It knows that one moment can be eternity. It's a fact, but only if you face the oncoming time."