Come with me on a journey, a journey into the moment you and I are in right now. As a child, I recall distinctly venturing into this imaginary place (I am a Pisces), flying high above the earth, and with x-ray like vision seeing the tapestry of life unfolding. At a young age, I was heavily drawn to the realization that there was such a diversity of experience happening in any given moment. For instance, in our technologically advanced age I can go to a website (https://www.worldometers.info/) and quickly acquire the following data for this moment:
WORLD POPULATION
7,710,416,679 Current World Population
62,651,280 Births this year
194,031 Births today
26,286,475 Deaths this year
81,409 Deaths today
36,364,805 Net population growth this year
112,622 Net population growth today
When you open this website live, you see these numbers constantly changing; a reminder of the constant flow of activity occurring on planet Earth. Speaking of our planet, its also interesting to note that when we look at our motion around the Sun, each year (365.26 days) every one of us travels 584 million miles. This distance is the circumference of the Earth’s orbit. Per day, we travel 1.6 million miles. This is farther than the distance that most people drive motor vehicles in a lifetime. (The average car in America is driven about 12,000 per year).
In this whirling, hurtling motion through time, we can freeze a moment (in our mind) and imagine the panorama of activity happening. If we could step into my childhood imagination again, flying over the earth wild and free, and seeing with clarity what was occurring below, what would we see? One thing for sure we would see is a great diversity of experiences.
Right now… a husband and wife sit silently in a hospital room with their faces buried in their hands processing the news just delivered by the Doctor, their newborn child will never walk and has severe brain damage. The news is devastating and life-changing. Right now… rooms full of Buddhist monks repeat aloud a mantra while seated in lotus-position in an ashram in Tibet. They seek a connection with the Divine. Right now… Lemurs leap from one tree to another on the island of Madagascar as they and their ancestors have done since arriving here in the late Paleocene period. It’s a beautiful day on the island. Right now… a group of business tycoons huddle in a conference room plotting the take-over of a competitor that will secure their position as the leading processor of chicken in the world. Smiling smugly, they feel invincible. Right now… a former professional basketball player lies inside a cardboard box under a bridge in Philadelphia with a bottle of whiskey in his hand. He can still hear the roar of the crowd as a tear drips lamentingly down his cheek. Right now… an owl watches the ground below him as a mouse creeps unknowingly across the fallen leaves. In a flash he dives and snatches the mouse from the forest floor. Right now… a child argues with her mother about continuing to play on the iPad that she has been using for the past three hours. With glazed, zombie like eyes she declares “you are so mean!”. Right now… thousands of people are gathered in a subway station below the city of Shanghai, awaiting their time to board the world’s largest rapid transit, and speed off to their destinations at 268 miles per hour. Its just another day. Right now…. in the Amazon Rainforest, in the region of Tanaru in Rondônia state, Brazil, the last survivor, of his indigenous tribe, makes his stand. Today he is on the run again, hiding in various holes he has dug for protection. Right now… the North Korean leader is holding a meeting of his top Generals. A thick darkness seems to envelop the room as plans are made to launch a nuclear missile. Right now…. a sixty-five-year-old woman collapses to her knees as she enters the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. She has dreamed of this moment most of her life; she is overwhelmed. Right now… an argument breaks out in a department store. “I had the dress first, aggressively declares the woman.” Right now… a scientist shuffles into his lab for the 30th straight year seeking to solve what dark matter is made of? He believes the answer will come soon. Right now… the Sinaloa Cartel plots it drug trafficking activities, bringing cocaine in from Columbia. Controlling 90% of the market, they are ruthless and violent. And they need more addicts. Right now… a pilgrim shuffles into the famed Cathedral in Santiago Spain, having completed a 500 mile plus pilgrimage seeking peace and understanding for himself and the world. There is an inner-contentment radiating from his heart.
To the best of our knowledge, life has been unfolding in some shape or form on this planet for 4.5 billion years. Whoever, and whatever put it in motion has allowed it to spin through time and space in a variety of manifestations. Life forms have come and gone, empires have risen and fallen, as have beliefs. One could argue that amidst all of this seemingly random and chaotic activity that there is little to no meaning. There have been moments I have felt that very sentiment; perhaps you have too. However, there is something beyond my rational, egoic self that prompts a different feeling. A spiritual feeling of awe and gratitude for being part of this miracle called the human experience. Despite the inequities, tragedies, and vulgarities, the mystery calls to us on some deep level. It beckons us to continue to press on. To find the meaning. Right now… you are alive. You are part of the aforementioned tapestry of life that is unfolding every moment, of every day. In this stream, you must swim. As you do, savor your place in this evolving story. Right now… is the most important moment.
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