Living in the moment is not the same as living like ther is no tomorrow

A relative of mine died suddenly and unexpectedly few years ago. No warning no nothing. She just collapsed. She was quite young. That was one of those reminders that life is short and unpredictable. It seems only during sudden tragedies we seem to remember these facts of life.

Usually after a while we forget this fact. It's buried underneath our other worries. I use the word 'worries' because that is how we often see it. We see death as a one more thing to worry about. Death is a problem to us. It's so big that we don't like to think about it. When we think about it, it's usually when something really unfortunate happens.

Personally I'm starting to see death as only one more event in our lives. I'd like to say solution but that sounds way too suicidal. I have no intention of speeding up my departure of this 65kg of meat, water and bones, that is delicately put together. When death is not a worry in my life I don't see it as something that could ruin my life prematurely.

So I'm trying to live in this moment just like everyone else. It's trendy these days but It's often trendy in all the wrong ways. Many of us think that living in this moment means doing as many things as possible in as short time as possible. We think we have to jump out of an airplane, ski down the mountain, buy a Ferrari, get respect, power, and fame before we die. We have to do it all, because it feels we would die in vain if didn't achieve something in our lives.

This whole living in the moment thing has twisted to something really strange. We collect all the things we can (money, experiences etc.), because some day we will be old and then we can't do anything. We justify our action today by thinking about our future.

Now there is the first argument that makes no sense: We live in the moment while worrying about the future. That's not living in the moment.

Secondly, we've become egocentric. Actually I think we've always been egocentric but now it seems it's getting worse. We are competing against each other on a global scale. Who's got the biggest ego, who is the greatest individual!

I'm not constantly worried about death, but I am worried about turning into egocentric in a time when I'd like to be eco-centric. There is no point in living like there is no tomorrow. There is always tomorrow. Maybe not to you and me because of a sudden accident or failure in our bodies, but there is always tomorrow for all the other people on this planet. It's egocentric to think otherwise.

For me living in the moment is realizing all that. Unfortunately my memory is often short. That is why I write it down.