Tiny universe

“A philosopher once asked, ‘Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human?’ Pointless, really… ‘Do the stars gaze back?’ Now, that’s a question.” ~Neil Gaiman, Stardust

When I was about 4 years old, I held my Dad's hand as we walked up our street and said wildly, "I can't believe I'm alive!" My Dad loves to recount this story with a wide grin. My Dad's always been a very science-minded kinda guy. He told me once that there were more stars in the sky than grains of sand on Earth. This revelation blew my young mind, sparking a lifelong interest in the mysteries of the sky and beyond. Neil deGrasse Tyson said it a different way, “There’s as many atoms in a single molecule of your DNA as there are stars in the typical galaxy. We are, each of us, a little universe.” How cool is that?

I think it's important to reflect on who we are as humans and our connection to the universe. Ultimately, I want to know why I'm here and I think, in this lifetime, I can start to understand more about that. I'm definitely curious to find out and have been on a quest to discover more about it. For Christmas last year, I asked for a bunch of books. One was "Siddhartha", a 1922 novel by Hermann Hesse about man who searches for enlightenment. I won't spoil the ending, but books like this have played a small part in sparking curiosity not just about otherworldly life, but also about what it's like to be human. I learned a valuable lesson when I dove a bit too deep into lucid dreaming and astral projection a couple of years ago. Fascinating as it was, the ethereal consumed my thoughts to the point where I lost the plot and didn't care too much for the real world for a bit - which isn't very helpful when you're living in a material world.

I've now come full circle and can say I have my feet planted a bit more firmly on the ground these days. As I navigate this journey of self discovery, I understand that this will be a lifelong quest to discover not just the mysteries above but also intricate complexities within us - ones that make us human. I'm all in for this adventure - feet on the ground, head in the sky - and that might just come in handy.