A RAPID RIDE

From now on, whenever I get into one of my ‘controlling’ moods, I should try to keep in mind some astonishing facts I discovered yesterday. As I was searching the internet, I stumbled upon the fact that the earth spins on its axis at a speed of about 1,000 miles per hour, and that it travels around the sun at the astounding speed of 67,000 miles per hour. When I read that, I sat back in my chair and tried to take in the idea that I’m living on a sphere that’s traveling at inconceivable speeds. While I’m sitting in our seemingly stock-still house, the ‘ship’ on which I’m a passenger is speeding through space in a breakneck way, both spinning and zooming, and it’s been doing this for at least 15 billion years. In the future, when I get stalled in thoughts of controlling any and every aspect of my life, I should remember these stunning truths about this universe that I’m part of. Billions of years ago, the cosmos created itself and started stars and planets whirling and rocketing, and it has been successfully designing its own life ever since. The universe controls everything, from the flow of my blood to the rotations of planets, and it does so in a smooth and harmonious manner. My question for myself should be, “Where do you come off thinking you have to control anything?” Yes, I am an essential member of the immeasurable team called the universe, but I am not the coach or the manager. I am like a wave in an endless ocean, and can a single wave control what such an ocean does? In the future, when the compulsion comes over me to “get things under control”, I hope I can recall the great facts of reality, and just loosen up a little and appreciate the implausibly rapid ride the universe is providing for me.

(first written in 2007, revised in December, 2012)