Awareness 1: The Stars Above

There is a lot to think about in life. As such, I tend to walk around life with my head in the clouds. I am constantly thinking about the world around me. As I have previously stated, this is both a boon and a burden. But I do believe there is wisdom in elements of this thinking, and I have come to learn and observe that through this thoughtful consciousness we can actually ground our minds and our bodies firmly in reality.


In my last entry I discussed the beauty of living in the present moment. In this I shall lay forth a small piece of one of the greater concepts required of living there in that place which we call the present. I believe that as humans we must culture a greater awareness of the world if we are to help anyone. Small thinking limits what we can do.


And so, awareness is required. By awareness I mean a greater and constant sense of the what is happening in the present at all times. Awareness helps to ground us in the present, and allows us to understand the reality that is shaping around us.


There are many different facets to awareness, and today with you I will discuss a particular type of awareness I believe we as humans all need to benefit more from.


So with that said, consider this your galactic awakening.



(Credit to the Amazing Anarchist for turning me on to the Symphony of Science)


Let us look at some numbers.

At the time of this writing, there are approximately 7,000,000,000 human beings known to be alive in the universe. There are about 150 galaxies in the universe for every person who is living today on planet earth. Stars in the universe outnumber humans 100,000,000,000,000 to 1. The amount of planets in these systems of life and space are immeasurably larger than any of these numbers.

Science tells us that the planet we live on is 4,540,000,000 years old, with our solar system being about as old. The Milky Way, and the universe for that matter, are both estimated to be 13,400,000,000 years old. For reference again, the average age of humans in this day and age is roughly 67 years.

The average height for an American male is 1.763 meters. The smallest stars tend to be between 20,000 and 40,000 meters in diameter, while the largest can be up to 900,000,000,000 meters in diameter. Our own sun is 1,392,000,000 meters in diameter, while the Milky Way Galaxy is 900,000,000,000,000,000,000 meters in at it's greatest length. 


As for the universe, if it is finite it is estimated to be 1.475873953722605x10^24 meters wide, or 156,000,000,000 light-years.

On its way out of of our solar system in 1990, Voyager 1 turned back and took this picture of our planet. You can see earth around the middle of the farthest band to the right. 6,000,000,000,000 meters away from where you are now this very second, this is what our entire world looks like.


By the by, for those who have not read Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, I highly recommend it.

So, what do all the numbers mean? What does it really matter that we are tiny little specks in a vast sea of energies and vast spaces? What is the point?


The point is that people go through life without ever really thinking about the size of these numbers and how big we really are in comparison. We are small, and so far as we know we are the only place in the entire universe of great stars, galaxies, and celestial bodies that harbors life. These large numbers and pictures of worlds far, far away must always serve as a reminder that the beings we share this earth with may be the only ones we ever know in the entire universe.

This is all we have. The people around you right now are part of an intangibly massive existence, of which we will only ever call an insignificantly small fraction home. Those who do evil, those who do good, those who just try to get through life; we are all a part of this great unimaginable universe, sharing a space of living with our brothers the stars and galaxies.


We must appreciate our life. When we gaze upon the night sky, we must recognize our aged brothers shining brightly back at us, and know that as living beings we have a responsibility to make this life the best possible life that it can be. Each living being, each object in space, everything in the universe ultimately shares a common journey.


The moment we that we take this cosmic awareness to heart is the moment we open ourselves up to understanding our true potential. Open your mind beyond just the mundane decisions we care not to think about in life and begin to think how each of these actions and every action you will help you to reach a good life of truth, freedom and happiness. The actions you do will speak with the stars after you are gone. The legacy you leave for tomorrow's today will resonate throughout the cosmos, helping those of us that are living to keep living, and hopefully to help give us a greater love and understanding of why it is we live.


Your actions are timeless, and the way you interact with the world around you will affect so much more than you can ever hope to comprehend. So when you are grocery shopping, or stuck in traffic, or just watching the television, try comprehending the size of the universe. It is an impossible task, to be sure, but it is this awareness of existence and this push against the impossible that will help us reach the full lives of truth and love that each of us ultimately crave.


You have a lot to think about, hopefully, and very little time and space to do it in. So start. Because you only get one chance.


This, is all we have.