Last week I saw a documentary on recent attempts to discover the outer edge of the universe using all the fancy new space telescopes we've launched. The "observable universe" - what we can see from Earth - has been mapped out, and some of this new technology was designed to give us a glimpse past it. It seems that the size of the "observable universe" is, in relation to the size of the actual universe, about the size of an atom. The entire universe is more vastly huge than we had previously thought it was. It's a size that is inconceivable.
This leads me to two thoughts: The first is to recognize that the little trials and tribulations of our daily lives are ridiculously unimportant in relationship to this massive Universe. We place a huge importance on trivial events. When facing these minor irritations, I ask myself, "How important is this, REALLY?" and remember the vastness of all creation.
The second thought is that we are all part of a huge natural network. There are spiderweb-like strings of galaxies all networked together. If we bring it down to an Earth size scale, we think about the complex natural environments that exist. Every plant and creature has its purpose in that network. Despite how tiny and insignificant we are in the context of the universal network, we are a vital part of our own little networks, that are a part of larger networks, that are a part of even larger networks, and so on. How do we position ourselves in that network? We can create value and meaning in our environments by being the very best we can be - creating our value systems and sticking to them. Everything and everyone is interconnected. How do you want to affect YOUR network?
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