Boy, summer really is going by fast, ain’t it? Pretty soon autumn will roll in and school will start up again. Hopefully, I’ll be back to work at the school. This summer has been a doozie, though. Lots of stuff happening. Not a lot of it was good. Feels like it’s been that way for a while now. Like the bad people are winning. The mean people. The selfish people. And maybe they are. And maybe they think of us as the baddies.

One thing happened this summer that was truly, truly remarkable. After more than a decade and untold billions of dollars, the James Webb Space Telescope was launched and started sending back images. They are incredible. But before we get into that, let’s set the mood with a little music. Be sure to read the lyrics to this song. They always get me to tear up.

I used to hate this song. I mean, really really hate it. Whenever it came on I’d huff and puff about it. I’d say it was stupid and overly mystical and that it sounded like children’s music. But none of that is true. I didn’t hate the song. I LOVED the song. I loved what it expresses. It’s clever and ethereal and so beautifully put. It wasn’t the song I hated. It’s what the song made me feel that I hated.

I am grounded

I am humbled

I am one with everything

What does this mean? What does it mean to you? Consider it for a moment.

For me, being grounded means being present. It means having a mindful approach to life. I try to remember that I am one of nearly 8 BILLION people on Earth right now. Want to expand this further? I am one of an estimated 118 billion since humans first started walking around. This doesn’t diminish who I am. If anything, it’s a miracle that I exist. I am not special or exceptional outside of myself. There are other Matt Barnsleys out there (many of us are friends on Facebook). But I am the only one who is me.

There is incredible power in that belief. It is liberating. Terrifying. Humbling. I don’t think being humble means being self-deprecating or shy about yourself. I don’t think it’s lowering yourself before something greater or more powerful. I think being humble means understanding that you are the same as everyone else because everyone else is as special as you.

Being one with everything is the key. It is easy to think we are all separate from each other. Human beings can only perceive a tiny fraction of what surrounds us. We are limited by our senses. We are limited by what our brains can comprehend. Anything that comes and goes faster than 13 milliseconds is invisible to us. Maybe that seems like an awfully quick speed but we wouldn’t really know, would we? Perhaps there is an entire world that exists around us but moves too fast or is too small for us to see. In fact, there is:

That’s just on the skin! Imagine what’s inside of us, in the air, and across the planet. Waaaay more than 118 billion. Again, that’s only what our current technology allows us to see. 500 years ago you’d have been burned at the stake for suggesting there was an invisible world full of animals that surrounded us. What will humans think 500 years from now? What will be able to “see”?

We are all connected to each other. The atoms that comprise my body were once the property of something else. And before that, something else. And before that, probably a star that went supernova. That’s the limit of where we can see and understand. There was nothing (which might have actually been something but who knows) and then there was something. A lot of something. From there the universe grew. We are simply stardust.

The JWST will help us peer even further back in time. It has already found two galaxies that immediately become the oldest and second-oldest we know of. They were created a few hundred million years after the Big Bang (the creation/continuation/rebirth of the universe). That might sound like a long time but in universal terms (13.7 billion years), it’s the blink of an eye. For centuries, they’ve been invisible to us.

I am grounded

I am humbled

I am one with everything

We are, at the same time, the most insignificant we will ever be and yet the most important thing in the world. Your life, my life, is meaningless except for the meaning we give to it. Everything in existence is contained within our minds. Nurture it, care for it, love it.

And most importantly, don’t make the giant cry.

A Speck of Dust