“You are that vast thing that you see far, far off with great telescopes.”
You may or may not identify as a religious or spiritual person. You may be Christian,Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Atheist or identify as another faith entirely. Regardless of the differences in our identities, philosophies or faiths, all human beings share in something profound. We share in the mystery of the Universe. It’s so easy to get stuck in our own little worlds, that we sometimes forget what’s really “out there”. So here are a few facts to give you some perspective.
The earth is just one of 8 planets revolving around our sun, which itself is a star. Earth, oursun, and the other 7 planets are all floating around near the edge of the Milky Way galaxy.In addition to the sun, there are about 100-400 billion other stars just in the Milky Way alone. 100-400 Billion just in the MILKY WAY ALONE!
In the “visible Universe” (the part that we can see with our most powerful tools and telescopes), there are about 100 Billion other galaxies. And these are just the ones we have access too with our best telescopes.
Think about this: There are about 8,000 grains of sand in a cubic centimeter. If you took every single grain of sand from every beach on earth and counted them, you would find that there are about 5-10 times more stars in the Universe than there are grains of sand on planet Earth.
This is simply incomprehensible. It’s beyond our understanding. It puts things into perspective. When the day to day anxieties and stresses become overwhelming, we can remind ourselves of the bigger picture- of the great and mysterious experience that we are all a part of… And remember that we are all together here, on our little blue planet in the middle of an enormous, beautiful and mysterious universe.