A Message

Oh, to live long enough to hear we've received a message from another race in the cosmos. To finally know for certain in the vast universe that we are not alone would comfort me. Even though the likelihood of us ever meeting would be next to nil, to know there are intelligent beings just as curious if we're out there as we are if they are.

That would be enough for me.

Mattering

I went to a birthday party last night. I had a couple cocktails, a gummy, saw lots of friends, sang happy birthday, and ate some really good food. You know what though? There’s a lot of the evening I feel I’ve outgrown. Yes, it was fun but being home comfortable and safe in my space would have been just as fun.

There are a good many things I find infinitely fulfilling; taking a walk, reading, listening to music, enjoying the companionship of my dog, the list goes on. These things touch a place in me where meaning and purpose flow from. I feel these things resonate there, spill out, and flood my essence. It anchors me in the moment with a deep, mindful, and self-aware joy. I’m not certain many others, if any, at that party last night feel or could understand that. The problems and frustrations of the day are all temporary matters. They are not constructions of the universe. They are complications we've designed to help us feel like we matter. The thing is we already do. Most don't slow down long enough to feel it all welling up from within themselves.

Moving through life aware of my own finiteness comforts me. I know the day will come when I cease to be and I will return from where I came. Knowing that as tiny as I am in the cosmos I played a part and I mattered. It wasn't my credit score, how much debt I amassed, what kind of car I drove, how big my house was, or how much money I had in my checking account. When the time comes it will be that I was self-aware enough to know simply being here mattered.

My Place in Life

I was thinking last night. You know that guy with the new car you're a little envious of? Has he ever been curious about what sand looks like under a microscope? Your neighbor that has the huge house you might be dreaming of living in? Does he recognize the poetry of the Periodic Table of the Elements? That guy that's climbed the ladder to CEO you admire? Is he awed by the elegant structure of the universe? Do they stop to marvel at the drop of rain magnifying a tiny, green insect on a leaf? Do they know to be humbled by the exquisite dance of DNA? Probably not. They don’t stop long enough to be awestruck by the splendor of it all. They spend their entire lives achieving and no time living. How sad for them.

I don't have a brand new car. I don't live in the fanciest house, don't wear the flashiest clothes, or have the most impressive job title. That's not what it's about. It's about kindness, inquisitiveness, and reverence for the recognition of my place in it all. 

Life and the Cosmos

All LIFE co-exists and flows together as ONE. Mother Earth is our shared home, an evolving self-regenerating landscape that connects, nurtures and sustains all of us, together. She recycles water and air, atoms and molecules. Sharing equally with ALL.

LIFE is meant to be lived like a dance, like music, like a creative and collaborative work of art that is ever evolving. That's what LIFE is.

Nature, our home (aka, Eden or Gaia) is a Living Community, more like a planetary cell or cosmic womb than a lonely rock spinning through space.

In Nature and our Universe, everything is shared, everything flows and keeps circulating. Atoms from the stars formed our planet and continue to be recycled endlessly.

The air we breathe, the water we drink, the molecules that circulate in your cells, these are all part of a greater story of Cosmic Creation (and Regeneration). A story that lives on *within* YOU.

Right now in your body (as well as the air that surrounds you) there are relics from the whole history of our Cosmos. Atoms that are billions of years old, that were once parts of stars and interstellar clouds, dinosaur bones, redwood forests, oceans and mountains are at this very moment moving within you.

Deep down YOU are Nature, YOU are the Universe, taking this temporary human form.

Many past cultures celebrated the mystery of life with creation stories and mystic teachings. They did not understand all the details (the science), but did recognize the creativity, interconnectedness, and sacredness of EVERYTHING.

What was true then is just as true now. It just requires that we look at our lives more deeply, go beyond the surface. Look beyond economics, politics, technology, wars and conflict to see with our imaginations (and hearts) the underlying connections that mainstream storytellers tend to ignore.

To see LIFE this way isn't hard, but it does require a shift in consciousness. To see unity where others see conflict, see deep creativity where others see destruction. See the potential for peace, balance and harmony where others see only chaos, conflicts and battles.

Your life, all of Earth history (and the whole Universe) can be experienced as a unified work of Cosmic Art. Constantly changing, evolving, moving and creating. It's here, all around us, and within us.

Move beyond the matrix of fears and beliefs that society's gatekeepers uses to hypnotize, confuse and confine us. Breathe deep. Look up at the stars. Listen to the birds. Watch the clouds that move through the sky. Drink water and eat food slowly, mindfully.

Turn off your television. Turn off your phone. Touch the miracle, present right HERE, right NOW in this very moment.

This is what in Zen they call our "original face," the ONE that created ALL of us, that existed far before "you" or "I" were ever born.

– Christopher Chase

The Full Moon and the Cosmic Family Tree

I woke up around 2am and found the brilliant full moon watching me through my window. I felt like somehow we were having a very private, intimate exchange going on. It's been patiently waiting for me to wake up. Our unspoken exchange was an acknowledgment and appreciation for one another.

“I’m here watching over you. You can go back to sleep now. You’re safe and everything will be okay. I promise.”

"Thank you."

I not only realized but could feel a profound truth in that moment. The moon and I, as well as every grain of sand on every beach, every tree, every bird, every bacterium, every molecule in the Universe, we are after all relatives. Each of us born of the same stuff. We are siblings on the Cosmic Family Tree. I fell back to sleep comforted in the knowledge that we are all truly One.

What Lies Beyond

One of my oldest and dearest friends has been facing the challenge of cancer that has spread to his bones (bone metastasis or "bone mets") that originated as prostate cancer. He faces this new challenge in his life with a sense of mindfulness, presence, and positive attitude. To those around him his attitude has been a balm for coming to terms with and accepting the (more than likely) inevitable conclusion of the situation. He messaged me this morning with an old quote of his he'd stumbled across. 

“At some point, the neural circuits will shut down, the lights of consciousness will wink out, and the long nighty-night will begin. And we will be freed from all human concerns by the gift of nonexistence. But until that point, we live still. After that point, we will be in precisely the same place we were before we were born. Not there, not anywhere and without a care.”

This is classic thought and attitude of my dear friend. I regret that his quote is spot-on. I regret what it means for all of us who will eventually leave behind those who have loved us and cherished our presence. It conjures questions and thoughts which have been pondered since time began. The curiosity of what lies beyond is titillating to say the least. We want to believe in something more. Everything we do has a beginning and an end. But those ends are always the beginnings of something else. We can't comprehend the notion of nothingness. Countless humans and histories have come before we joined this current one. Countless humans and histories will come after us. To try and wrap our brains around the notion that we will no longer "be" is difficult. To embrace that there may be nothing is onerous. It's not a dark room with no sound and all we have to do is open the door onto "the present." It's literally nothing. Can that possibly be? If we are energy beings in a particular form, and if energy can be neither created, or more importantly hopeful here, nor destroyed, do we transmogrify into something else? Sometime more? Something more "universal"? Are we caterpillars who become other-dimensional butterflies? Will we be able to observe old friends and loved ones "back here"? If "there" exists will we have emotions there? Will we join up with old friends and family who've been waiting for us in our new, possibly higher form? Do our energies attach to one another even in the wherever-that-may-be? I can't imagine that there will be emotions or thoughts as we know them. As sure as his quote says, we will most certainly be without a care. 

Song of Myself

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journeywork of the stars,
And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren,
And the tree-toad is a chef-d’oeuvre for the highest,
And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven,
And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,
And the cow crunching with depress’d head surpasses any statue,
And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels.”
― Walt Whitman, Song of Myself, 31

Our Brief History

We think life is long. It's not. We're just a teeny blip on the timeline. A tiny gear in the machine of the Universe. So we need to grab all the joy and happiness we can and never, ever live with regret no matter what. Something in your life not what you want or not bringing you joy? Don't waste a single moment more on it. Dump it and don't look back. Do not come to the end of it all having regrets over missed opportunities. 

Someone said when Death comes and takes the first bite out of them, they want it to be the juiciest, most delicious bite Death has ever taken. Death will realize this was a person who lived a full life and squeezed every last drop out of it. 

I couldn't agree more. 

My Fellow Rocks

My rock haul from my Provincetown vacation. Nice additions to my collection. I always write on the underside where and when I got them. For me it’s the best souvenir. Rocks have always held a fascination for me. How old are they? Where in the Earth did they form? How long have they been on this particular beach? We’re made of the same stuff. We are children of the Universe and cohabitants of the same planet. We are more connected than we realize.

The Optical Delusion of Being a Human

"A human being is part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

– Albert Einstein in replying to a stranger who asked for consolation on the death of his son.

The Universe Body

What understanding does a subatomic particle like a muon, lepton, or quark have of the vastness of the human body it inhabits and its functions? We are the muons, leptons, and quarks of our Universe Body.

The Machine of the Universe

I had a very nice "moment of presence" at the gym this morning. The sun was just beginning to peek over the building (my gym's windows face west), and it was shimmering on a huge tree at the end of the parking lot. Every leaf seemed bright and vivid and intensely alive. The music I was listening to on my iPhone was the album, "Om: The Primordial Sound".* It's very meditative and puts me in a nice relaxed and focused zone. At the very moment the music hit a dramatic spot a flock of birds careened in front of the patch of leaves I described above. They shimmered for a brief moment in the sunlight as well. In that nanosecond it almost felt as if I wasn't in the gym, but away and part of some larger whole. My place in it fit like some tooth in a gear meshing with the notches in another gear. A tiny but integral cog in the machine of the universe. It was one of those moments where everything falls away and it's just you and the experience. In that brief flash you know beyond a doubt you are an integral part of something much bigger. *I highly recommend this album. It can be found on iTunes for those interested.

Of Filaments and Networks

The image in red is a photo of a section of the universe. All the strands are billions of galaxies that have clumped together to form what are called "galactic filaments." The image in purple is a section of the neural network of the human brain. The similarity is inescapable and makes me stop and ponder everything. Does it you?