The present moment allows us to choose and re-choose again. The present moment allows for a process of re-examining everything that has happened in the past, and re-choosing the future.

There are events that take place in our lives, which at the moment of their occurrence seem difficult and bad. But on re-examination, one finds that in fact the same occurrences were for the good. 

If we stop for a second, in the present moment, before any situation that may seem dark and threatening to us, and we look back, and recall previous similar cases that have occurred in our lives, we will realize that in the end everything will surely be good. 

The girl in the drawing carries a heavy burden on her back, and faces a high, dark staircase. The character does not see the light. Only the outside observer can see that in the end there will be light. 

So too, the Blessed One paves the way for us, and only he can see the great light at the end of all torment. But at the same time, the figure who does not yet see the light, looks back, and smiles in the belief that just as in the past all challenges have become treasures and gifts, so it will be in the future. In the present moment we turn to look at the past, and it affects our future.