Each instant of life is a step toward death.

In the past missionaries have traveled to far countries with the message of the gospel - with great hardship and often with the loss of life. In contrast we can reach millions instantly from the comfort of our homes by merely hitting the 'send' button on our computers or with iPads or phones.

The Internet has changed everything. We expect to know everything instantly. If you don't understand digital communication you're at a disadvantage.

The Internet has brought communities across the globe closer together through instant communication.

These sites have torn down the geographical divide that once prevented long distance social relationships from forming allowing instant communication and connections to take place and a virtual second life to take hold for its users.

There's all these ways to instantly communicate - cars computers telephone and transportation - and even with all that it's so hard to find people and have an honest communication with them.

During the past few decades modern technology with radio TV air travel and satellites has woven a network of communication which puts each part of the world in to almost instant contact with all the other parts.

That said the question remains: how to strike the balance between free speech and mutual respect in this mixed-up world both blessed and cursed with instant communication? We should not fight fire with fire threats with threats.

And once you get instantaneous communication with everybody you have economic activity that's far more advanced far more liquid far more distributed than ever before.

But I'm acutely aware that the possibility of fraud is even more prevalent in today's world because of the Internet and cell phones and the opportunity for instant communication with strangers.

Email instant messaging and cell phones give us fabulous communication ability but because we live and work in our own little worlds that communication is totally disorganized.

My kid could get a bad X-ray and I could get a call from the doctor saying I have something growing in my bum and that would change my perspective on everything instantaneously on what is and what is not important.

Pick up a rifle and you change instantly from a subject to a citizen.

The truth is that we can learn to condition our minds bodies and emotions to link pain or pleasure to whatever we choose. By changing what we link pain and pleasure to we will instantly change our behaviors.

Using the power of decision gives you the capacity to get past any excuse to change any and every part of your life in an instant.

The style of ancient Egyptian art is transcendently clear something 8-year-olds can recognize in an instant. Its consistency and codification is one of the most epic visual journeys in all art one that lasts 30 dynasties spread over 3 000 years.

The creative act lasts but a brief moment a lightning instant of give-and-take just long enough for you to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box.

Photography takes an instant out of time altering life by holding it still.

In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth and have begun striving for ourselves.

On the one hand shopping is dependable: You can do it alone if you lose your heart to something that is wrong for you you can return it it's instant gratification and yet something you buy may well last for years.

Growing up on stage I was introduced to makeup at a young age and I will never forget the first time I tried on a L'Oreal Paris iconic lipstick - it was instant glamour and I've been hooked ever since.

We live in an age of instant knowledge. And there's almost a sense of entitlement to that.

'Bombing Afghanistan back into the Stone Age' was quite a favourite headline for some wobbly liberals. The slogan does all the work. But an instant's thought shows that Afghanistan is being if anything bombed out of the Stone Age.