We never know day to day what we will have to face; some days are smooth, but other days we feel completely overwhelmed  •  but there is always a chance to start fresh, to disrupt the painful pattern of feeling overwhelmed, stuck, and hopeless — as well as to disrupt the smug feeling that arises when things are going well  •  we can draw on the quality of interruption and fresh start in the middle of a situation, or in the middle of our meditation practice  •  the notion of “freshness” has a healthy and dynamic quality; the notion of “start” is that we can begin again  •  produce from the grocery store has an expiration date beyond which it’s not healthy any more  •  our experiences are like that, but the expiration date of our experiences is immediate: once you’ve experienced something, it’s no longer fresh  •  making a fresh start is like cleaning the refrigerator, throwing out the stale produce and making space so the fresh, nourishing produce of the present moment can nurture a healthy, sane, and open state of mind and heart.