Inner Light

I liked Kanin’s wife. That lady knows whats up.
When Picard mopes, obsessing over the 'true' life he used to know, she tells him to enjoy his life here, with her.
“When are you going to let go and start living this life, was that life so much better that you cling to it so stubbornly?” This clinging to the life of the past perpetually serves to demean the present, which Picard later says is “always the most precious time.”
In fact, Picard goes full circle, proclaiming that he does not want his daughter "burdened with things (she) cannot change."
Remember that Kanin's wife told Picard, right before she died, to put his shoes away.
We all laughed at this: this mundane event at a crucial moment.
But this is like the Zen story of the student who, after a meal, asked the master what the secret of enlightenment was. The Zen master asked the student, "have you finished your porridge?"
The student said, "Yes."
The master said, "then wash your bowl."
And immediately the monk knew all the secrets of all the universe.
A lifetime burning in an instant.
every instant.
Like the tortured narrator of Stranger than Fiction said, it is the trivialities, the nuances that fill our life up, make it worth living.