Have you ever gazed into a clear atmosphere nighttime star filled sky?
It’s quite a humbling experience. Not unlike the self awareness that life breathes into us.
You may have to study the naked-eye depth of the heavens for just a bit to gain its full affect.
So many stars. So far away. Unreachable by today’s human physical standards except by gazing in awe at the splendor.
We feel small and large at the same time. Small because of the open, seemingly infinite, vastness of outer space and large because we know that we are collectively a part of it.
We are a “pale blue dot” from far away… until you get so far away that the dot is overcome by distance. Even then, you’re nowhere near the edge. If there is an edge.
We can only see so far out into the heavens.
We can theoretically and speculatively make assumptions on the size of the universe, but it’s currently one of the infinite “God only knows” truths us mere earthbound mortals face.
The universe has an estimated “observable” diameter of about 93 billion light years, but we simply don’t know exactly how large the universe is.
Also, it’s interesting that the “now” of the visible physical universe is a conundrum encumbered by relative distance.
As we look farther out into space, we’re looking farther back in time. The light we see of a star is old. The further away the star is, the older the light is that we see.
The light we receive on Earth “now” from the Sun is over eight minutes old. The next closest star light we receive is over four years old from Alpha Centauri. The most distant stars we see at 46.5 billion years ago give us an indication of the early universe.
If you’ve never gazed out into outer space, then you’ve probably never wondered what and who is out there. And you may never have felt the incredible fullness of the cosmos. Feeling the open fullness of the cosmos is the opposite of introversion.
You might even begin to believe in the vast open oneness of an amazing, peaceful, and intelligent collective destiny.
