Living in the moment?

Ferris Bueller spectacularly taught those of us from a certain generation that "life moves pretty fast and if you don't stop and look around sometime, you are going to miss it".

I was stunned yesterday to hear of the passing of a friend of mine.  This guy had just turned 51.  He led a healthy lifestyle, and was fortunate enough to have turned his excellent eye for photography into a successful business.  He had a family and a massive network of friends.  He apparently had a hemorrhagic stroke, and just could not recover.  It's crazy to think that one little internal malfunction can cause such dramatic devastation, but there you go.  From what I can tell from the tribute site that is already thriving for him, he epitomized living in the moment.  While I'm sad he's gone now, it is somewhat comforting to know he made the most of his time on this planet.

So, thinking about Ferris' advice and stopping to look around now...I see so much negativity, it makes me sad.  Try sitting through 10 minutes of the local or national news sometime.  It's nearly all bad.  Turn to social media and see what's happening there.  In my own current experience, people seem to be taking darkness to social media as well.  I see so many rants about Obamacare, corrupt officials, police brutality, the right to arm yourself to teeth, the neighbor's dog crapped in their yard, and on and on and on.

I applaud these people's passion...AND...I worry about their balance.  There's no way to know if some of these passions are obsessive without observing these people 24/7, but some of them sure seem to be.  I hope they are also carving out time to spend with families or friends, or playing or listening to music, or doing something outside which puts them in touch with nature somehow...or all of the above.

Remember...there is always suffering, and there is a reason for the suffering.  The suffering ends though, and there is a path to the end of that suffering.  We are only here for a short time.  Life does move fast and we need to look around.  Being passionate about something is great, we just need the balance of other things to keep that passion in the proper prospective.

Namaste