Looking For Today

I got the title of this blog from a Black Sabbath song, "Looking For Today." I see the song as a take on what Ram Dass was trying to say in his famous book "Be Here Now." Most people in the Western World spend their days locked in thought about something besides the Now that's happening right in front of them. We miss the actual act of living because our society has become complex enough so that a lot of our brain power has to be expended figuring out our next move. It's really tough to shut our minds up and simply take in the moments as they pass through our consciousness.

But it's worth the effort, because someday you'll be staring down the double barrels of your mortality, and all those moments that you spent thinking about something, someone or someplace else will seem like moments that passed too fast. Only by paying attention to each moment in as much detail as possible can you get to the fact that life is a precious gift not to be squandered. While it's true that the mind needs to be given a break every once in a while by watching TV or reading a good book, the fact remains that the value of life lies in the details.