Hi reader! Have you ever heard the phrase “Be here now”? It’s a mindfulness-oriented saying that simply intends to remind you to return continuously to the present moment—the eternal “now.” Now is a three-letter word which seems a simple enough concept until you start to unpack its implications.

When you reminisce too much about things that have happened or postulate about what could have been, you tend to grow attached to those thoughts and are distracted, your awareness pulled from the present moment—all that truly is—to live in some simulated past that does not exist.

Likewise for putting too much stock in the future. One can set goals, have dreams, make plans. But one must never forget that the future arrives as a series of unbroken moments of now—until then. We manifest the future by keeping its dim outline in mind to propel us forth in manifesting it each day in the now.

Anyway—back to “Be here now.” I was at Virgin Megastore in Dallas in the mid-2000s when it went out of business. I had loaded up on a bunch of clearance CDs and was waiting in the checkout line when a strange, square book with a dark blue and white cover caught my attention. Upon further inspection, I found that it was called “Be Here Now”. There was an engraving of a simple wooden chair with a wicker seat on the cover. Around the chair was a large circle drawn with 12 points evenly spaced around its circumference. Each point, connected to each other point, forms a web of lines that sprawls across the surface of the circle. Notably, they converge perfectly in a single point right in the center.

The book was written by a modern mystic and psychonaut named Ram Dass—or as he was known before his spiritual transformation, Richard Alpert. I’ve always been naturally drawn to psychedelia and the countercultural movement that came to life in 1950s-1960s USA. (But I won’t be expounding on that subject until I’m assured of my independent self-sufficiency as a writer and don’t need to rely on corporate gigs to survive, if I’m not being too subtle.)

It’s a truly wonderful book. You might think, based on the author, artwork, and subject matter, that it deals heavily in illicit substances. While that was certainly a large part of the scene for spiritual seekers of that time, the subject matter at the center is entirely sober. It’s all about understanding who we TRULY are at the center, what our place in the universe is, finding some real meaning—at least, through the lens of eastern spirituality, which I resonate with—to the mid, agonized chaos of this realm, I’m sure you’ll hear me talk about this more in the future. Ram Dass was a real one. Have a good week!

— Jared Caraway​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​