Have you ever done that mind awareness exercise where you close your eyes, and your drama teacher (or whoever) tells you to imagine yourself lying down, then in this building, then on this street, in this town, in this region, in this country, on this hemisphere, on this planet, in this galaxy…? Where you imagine yourself as a big camera looking down at you, then the balding, then like an aerial map of the street, the city, then as a map of the country, the hemisphere, then as a giant eye looking at planet earth in space?
I used to use that when I was having trouble falling asleep. It was comforting to think of myself being so small, amid so many other people, as something bigger. I guess it was like if I thought of how small I was in the large scale of the universe, it would be easier to put that little physical being to sleep. (For the record, it worked more than it didn’t).
Then recently I started reading this book, “A Short History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson (as recommended by Markus). It has blown my cosmic mind. Really. It has put into great perspective how vast the universe is, and, consequently, how miniscule I am on this scale. For example, if you were to use computer-sized printer paper to draw out all the planets of our solar system in correct proportion to each other, and then lay them out to scale distance-wise, it would take 35,000 miles to accurately display. Crazy! No wonder it takes 25 years to get to Pluto by spacecraft!
That got me thinking a whole gamut of possibilities, of course. One: If that is how big our solar system is, and every star could possible be a sun to whole other solar system equally as large, then it would be impossible for humans to explore because it would take too long to get there (25,000 years). Two: With other potential systems so far away and in the millions, the possibility for life, even life that perfectly imitates life on Earth, rises significantly. But again, our ability to discover such places would be impossible.* That makes me feel curious. Like, maybe there’s another me out somewhere. Maybe there’s another person who is typing something like this as I do on a planet that would take me 15,000 years to fly to.
Do those thought pique your interest? I find it incredibly humbling. Like when I’m doing yoga, and I meditate on my connection to earth (through birth, through living and sustaining, etc.), it is very calming and spiritual to think, “I am here, part of this, which is part of this…” and so on. Not practicing yoga at this very minute, this thought process makes me realize, on a newly enlightened level, how truly important environmental sustenance is. But that’s another topic for another day.
Today I urge you all to reflect on your physical, geographic relation to the earth, the solar system, and the universe. (Though avoid this while using mind-expanding drugs. Could be dangerous).

*I know I wrote before about never saying never, but this really is impossible. No human has lived beyond 150 years, let alone 25,000.