I went jogging last weekend for the first time in months. Happily, I had no issue getting back into it. I use an elliptical machine regularly and do a fair amount of walking and rucking, so I guess I wasn’t that out of shape for jogging.
As I trotted along, I listened to a random music mix. “Up Where We Belong” sung by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes1 played as I approached the intersection of The University of Arizona Mall and Campbell Avenue. I jogged in place while I waited for the pedestrian crossing light signal. When the signal alighted, I stepped onto Campbell to continue my run into the Sam Hughes neighborhood.
Then something peculiar happened. A motorcycle escort for a funeral cortege pulled up and stopped me. I stood there, and at the exact moment the hearse passed by me, Jennifer Warnes sang the lyrics,
"All we have is here and now."
Are you kidding me?!? No way was it a coincidence that a hearse drove right in front of me as I stood in the middle of the road while simultaneously the lyrics “all we have is here and now” flowed through my ears and into my soul. This clearly was a message from on High.
Thus I now reflect, and I seek the wisdom of those who have come before me. I am inspired by the following quotes from Buddhism, Christianity, and Stoicism.
“Ardently do today what must be done. Who knows? Tomorrow, death comes.”
The Buddha (Bhaddekaratta Sutta)
James 4:13-14, The Bible, niv
13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”
MARCUS AURELIUS (meditations)
Be present, my friends!
With Love,
P. Gustav Mueller, author of The Present
- “Up Where We Belong” was popularized by the movie “An Officer and a Gentleman” starring Richard Gere, Debra Winger, and Louis Gossett Jr. and is a Mueller fave. ↩︎