We watched a TED talk by Daniel Kahneman after meditation. The subject was the difference in the way we experience happiness, and the way we remember it. Here's a bit from that talk:

We actually don't choose between experiences, we choose between memories of experiences. And even when we think about the future, we don't think of our future normally as experiences. We think of our future as anticipated memories.

It's an challenging idea - that we experience our life in very different ways: the present, and our stories about the past (and future). Which one guides us? Which one should?