photo by Greg Rakozy
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky
Twinkle, twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are
One of the things I hate, and at the same time love, about camping is getting up in the middle of the night to use the outhouse. It’s painful to get out of a warm sleeping bag, put your shoes on, and crawl out of a tent into the darkness.
At the same time I am often amazed at how clear the sky is and how much better I can view the stars. When I get away from the lights of the city and surround myself with wilderness, the darkness allows a view that isn’t possible at home.
Out in the wilderness, the stars seem closer, brighter, and more brilliant. It feels like I’m enveloped by them and I feel connected to a larger reality beyond my individual experience.
It’s a brief moment where time seems to stand still and I feel connected to the expansiveness of the universe. I am looking at the same stars seen by people who lived thousands of years ago and will been seen by those in the future. Amazing!
Yet in those same moments l feel small and the everyday anxiety I feel about being good enough or right enough doesn’t matter. The doubts I have about whether my life is making a difference go away. The struggle to be important becomes unimportant. At that time and in that moment, I am accepted and I belong.
What I am learning is that much of what I struggle with really doesn’t matter in the bigger context of life. It doesn’t matter if I’m perfect. I doesn’t matter if some people don’t like me. It doesn’t matter if you agree with me. What is important is that I am accepted and belong to a larger reality.
What is this universe that I’m talking about? It’s me, it’s you. It’s our world, it’s our galaxy. It’s the earth, it’s all of life. It’s everything. I’m part of it all. You are part of it. Everything is connected.
It’s easier to have a awakening or spiritual experience in the wilderness or the mountain top, but I know I need to take this awareness to my everyday life. It’s easy to forget that I’m connected to a larger world in the busyness of the day and with the barrage of news about conflicts around the world. It feels like everything is trying pull me into a feeling that I am separate from other people and everything around me.
The problem with feeling separate from other people and other life on earth is that it leads me to either feeling superior to some and inferior to others. It’s in this separateness that I distance myself from others and am tempted to shut out the needs of other people, animals and our world.
Only someone who thinks they are separate from another person can ignore, abuse, or war with them. Only someone who believes they are separate from other species can ignore, exploit, and send them into extinction. Only someone who thinks they are separate from nature; from the universe itself, believes they can dominate, use, and exploit the resources and environment for their own needs and wants.
Only someone who believes they are superior thinks they will not suffer the repercussions of their actions.
To be honest, believing that I’m superior feels good. It’s reassuring to feel like you have the answers and that you are better than other people or superior to other species. It’s powerful to be in a position of superiority.
But feeling disconnected from the larger reality of our universe and it inhabitants can also lead to feelings of inferiority. It’s easy for me to feel less successful than others who earn more or have more than I do. This comparison usually leads to discouragement and more importantly, to a lack of gratitude for everything I do have.
Separating ourselves from other people in many ways is an attempt of self-protection; protecting our values, our identity, or way of life. Other people or even species can feel like an encroachment on our sense of security and by separating ourselves we feel we can protect ourselves and our families.
But over the years I’ve met great people with different beliefs, ways of living, and ideas. I’ve come to understand that despite our differences we are more alike than different. We have similar hopes and dreams. We all want safety, security, and well being for ourselves and our families. We all want to be loved and accepted.
The late astronomer and astrophysicist Carl Sagan said that everything in our world, including humans, are made of the stuff of stars, “The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff.” All of life; all of our experience has a common beginning. This is why I believe we are connected to each other, other species, and our world.
I’m not arguing for what or who started our universe. What I’m learning is that no matter how it all started, we are not separate from it. We are part of our world and our experience was born out of it.
We have enormous challenges today, but I am hopeful. If we pass this awareness on to more people we can start to create more peace and harmony around us. We can treat other humans, species, and the environment with the best care we can. We can make incremental changes to move in the right direction. We can start to see ourselves connected to all of life.
I believe that change starts with me. My process has been a series of small steps and insights.
The call to action I have for you is to create small acts of kindness for other people, other life, and the world we live in.
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
How I wonder what you are?
How I wonder what you are?
You are us and we are you.