A billion years—how about 5.43 billion years? That, according to Google, is how long the earth has been around. In my mind, that borders on incomprehensible. I look up to the sky and am mesmerized by the countless stars, each a sun with who knows how many planets circling. The questions fly through my mind, but it all comes down to this:  how does this miracle of life work? What drives the migration of millions of species around the globe to a pre-determined spot on or under our earth. Each species is guided accurately to a specific spot on the globe—by air, on land and under the seas—thousands of miles away. Unlike us, they never miss. They don’t show up in Europe when they set out for Australia. Who times these migrations? Who invented their GPS?

          How does a 12-year-old write a symphony? How does the earth really work? What is the connection between millions of light years and today? How does a magnetic force that connects the moon and earth come about? It all feels like perfect order.

          Then, the world shifts, and natural disasters come calling. The earth’s surface erupts. A blizzard or hurricane causes wide spread damage. Ice caps melt too rapidly. Mass flooding wipes out whole towns. Even the leaning tower of Pisa has leaned too far. Yet it all seems to be part of the world rebalancing. As life and time ticks along, change happens. I am reminded of this saying: The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. But do they? In a larger sense, I think they do. The beat changes but the rhythm of life, of the universe, of the unknown carries on. At least, so far it has, and I hope it always will. 

          What an unbelievable world we live in. When I pay attention, I am humbled. When my ego strays too far I need only to look around—to the sky, the oceans, the moon—to come back to the right size. Somehow, we are all tied in to this massive scope of time. I know I will never understand it all, but I am reminded how important it is to do the right thing. I hope over the next 5 or 6 billion years, we are living in Martin Luther King’s dream and John Lennon’s “Imagine” lyrics as a way of life. 

In peace, love and laughter,

 Joe