It's Fine....I'm Fine....Everything is Fine

We all have it sometimes....that sense of worry or dread about things we can’t control.  Some people suffer from debilitating anxiety that interferes with the life they want.  I don’t tend to be an anxious person, but there are things that can send me into a tailspin and usually they aren’t huge or life threatening.  I can stress over seemingly small things at times.  I can sometimes succumb to nagging worry that can cause me to lose sleep or obsess about what “could” happen. 

In my head I know it’s so counterproductive and a waste of time.  Worry does not fix anything and almost all of the time it turns out to be “nothing to worry about”.  Knowing that doesn’t keep me from focusing on worry sometimes.  I usually try to master it with prayer, distraction, or playing a mind-over-matter game with myself.  But I’ve learned over time that you can’t compartmentalize it into going away.  Telling yourself to have peace and trust God is what you know but not always what you feel. 

Today I have to do something that is causing me that restless, anxious feeling in advance.  I know it will very likely all be fine, but trying to push the worry down doesn’t change it or make it go away.  I wrote a poem about it.  Maybe you can relate. I’m working on the letting it come and pass through today.  

Looming shadow drifts in and out

as will pushes it back to the edges of perception.

Pretending works for a while. Distraction has its moments of victory.

It floats around the perimeters of thoughts,

continually trying to breech the safety barrier of calm.

Its goal is to steal peace and create chaos.

Reinforced only by determination to hold the line

and faith that it will eventually work for the good,

it tries to build anxiety and anticipation of worst possible outcomes.

The spirit must win the war by accepting confrontation.

It can be kept at bay temporarily but eventually has to pass through.

Ready your heart and let it come;

accept its threat as something that can be overcome. 

Let its wave build and crash till the tide recedes;

then comes rest and fading shadow.

Another wave will come, but also comes the knowledge

that you rise to the surface, wet but breathing.

Confidence in who you have become is stronger than the fear.

Claim the deed.  You can’t know the outcome, but you can own your response.

Walk through the shadow and into light – it’s yours to own.  

(Drawing and quote credit to Charles Mackesy) 

Overcomers Series Episode 4 – Against All Odds

I’m not usually particularly cause driven, but if there is one cause I’m all in on, it’s spreading positivity in these rather tough times.  So, so many folks are adversely affected by the constant onslaught of bad news we are exposed to on a regular basis.  I spend a lot of time looking for inspiration among the shards of brokenness that we hear about every day so that I can share it with anyone who cares to listen (or read in this case). 

My son-in-law may want to hurt me for sharing this story because he’s a pretty humble guy and doesn’t enjoy the spotlight.  But what he has accomplished in his short thirty-some-year life keeps shining a light on him.  And because I’m incredibly proud of him and find him inspiring, I think maybe his story will inspire you as well. 

Meet Travis Franklin.  He began hanging around with our daughter at the ripe age of 14.  To make a long story short, the two of them managed to date all through high school and university and after graduation, they got married.  Whitney landed a job at Gonzaga University as an event planner, and Travis became an elementary teacher.  After a few years in the public school system, Travis and some colleagues began to have conversations about what would make the ideal school.  Travis began to ask the question, “If you could dream about the best school you could imagine, what would it look like?”  He dreamed of creating a school that he would want his own children to attend. 

Charter schools were not a thing in the state of Washington, but there was interest.  Travis began to explore if opening one could ever become reality.  The road was not paved – in fact it wasn’t even a dirt trail.  The uphill battles seemed like mountain ranges.  The people of Washington voted to allow charter schools, but the political powers that be basically ignored the will of the people.  It finally ended up in the Washington Supreme Court.  First there were defeats and then finally small victories and charters were approved as a viable alternative for parental choice in education.  There were still so many obstacles!  Funding was a problem and even finding a location was practically impossible.  But Travis didn’t give up.  Making this dream come to life was a battle from day one.  For every door that opened, ten closed.  There was a lot of determination, communication, innovation, collaboration….and prayer!  All of this just followed on the heels of his graduation from the Master’s Program in Organizational Leadership at Gonzaga.  As part of that program, his GU class climbed Mount Adams and summited as a group.  Let’s just say Travis is very good at summiting mountains. 

The dream became Spokane International Academy, one of two first ever charter schools in Spokane.  Teachers, parents, community members, and even some well-known entrepreneurs bought into the dream.  There were countless grant requests, building searches, appeals for authorizations, and hoops to jump through…. oh so many hoops.  But this little engine that could, with Travis as the engineer, came to life.  At first it was an elementary school that found a home in a historic (can you say VERY old and not well maintained) Catholic School building.  Next came renting a space in a former Christian school for a middle school.  Then FINALLY the school board found a fantastic vacant building where all the grades could be together and allow for a high school.  What started with a question about what a great school could look like, became a highly successful realization of a dream.

I’m very impressed with this next generation of dreamers who want to make the world a better place.  They are passionate, involved, and determined.  They make things happen for the good of all and they are willing to climb mountains to make them happen.  If that’s not positive news, I’m not sure what is.  Travis Franklin is one of those climbers who drags people up the mountain if necessary so they can reach the top with him. And all in the name of the next generation after him. He inspires the people around him and a whole lot of students to dream, too.  And Travis inspires me. 

Here's the link to a recent article from Gonzaga University about Travis and SIA:

https://www.gonzaga.edu/news-events/stories/2021/11/2/franklins-spokane-international-academy?fbclid=IwAR2Fi_GM0P1cgeQSurXAWO1afOksD-TeJAGFiCvzQpiSbwvfZNyyidzwFec

Attitude of Gratitude

It seems rather unfortunate and perhaps a bit disingenuous that here in the States (and Canada, too) only one day each year is set aside to be thankful.  And it’s also a bit disappointing that it has become a day where we stuff ourselves with food the entire day, maybe watch parades and football which have very little to do with actual gratitude, though some may be quite grateful for them.  We may be grateful for an additional day off or having a day to spend with family or friends. Some families may even go around the dinner table and think of something to be thankful for.  Can you tell Thanksgiving is not my favorite holiday? I don’t want to sound like the Grinch Who Stole Thanksgiving, but even the history of the holiday itself has been glorified into a lovely sit down between the Pilgrims and Indians that lead to long term peace between the two groups.  There was a lot more to the story and not much of it was something to be thankful about. 

My cynicism about the holiday may have more to do with the hours of preparation and the endless pile of dirty dishes than actually disagreeing with the purpose of it.  Of course it’s good to have a day to express gratitude for all our blessings.  It seems to me, however, that if you aren’t grateful on the other 364 days of the year, it doesn’t mean much to set aside one day.

I know that in my own life, an attitude of gratitude is necessary in the day to day to  keep a positive perspective and it has to become an ongoing habit of living. It’s more than just feeling thankful in any given moment, it’s a mindset that allows us to take the good and bad that life hands us and still find a way to be grateful for what we learn in the journey.  We don’t always feel particularly thankful when we are standing in the muck and the mire, but perhaps down the road we will get a sense that we grew through it all and that there was a purpose. 

So here’s my suggestion.  Wherever you are in the world, and regardless of whether you celebrate a day called Thanksgiving, take some time to come up with a list of things that you are especially thankful for.  I already have a few:  family, friends, good food to eat, a comfy place to live, the beauty of creation, health, being able to use my gifts and passions, faith, security, joy, peace…..all the big things, of course.  But also I’m thankful for so many little things like hugs from my grandkids, my journal, photographs, hooded sweatshirts, books, campfires, my mini deck, sunny days…an endless list of little joys. What does your thankful list include? Even if you are going through hard times, no doubt there are things you can count as blessings through it all.  So take a minute, or an hour, or a day, or EVERY day to focus on those things you’re grateful for.  And just maybe Thanksgiving will seem more real than turkey, parades, and football.  Happy Thanksgiving every day of the year! 

Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust

We've all heard that “curiosity killed the cat”.  And because I have an insatiable curiosity myself, I needed to know where that phrase came from.  It’s been around a long time and even Shakespeare quoted it in “Much Ado About Nothing”.  The first form of the expression came from the English playwright Ben Jonson as far back as 1598. It implies that over-investigation may have undesirable consequences. We’ve also been told that cats have nine lives.  I had a cat once that seemed like it could have nine lives because it survived several seemingly unsurvivable incidences, but we all know that the probability of that being true is slim to none.  And while we’re asking, how do cats always manage to land on their feet?  Now you see how my mind works – from one question to the next. 

I think highly curious people are those who don’t just ask a lot of questions, but have a hard time being satisfied with not knowing the answers.  Google, Siri, Alexa and YouTube are best friends to people, who like myself, have a drive for understanding and knowledge about anything and everything.  Just the other day I Googled, “how to design a story for Instagram”, and in three easy steps, I sorted it (watch out Instagram followers!).  Those sites are also helpful for some of us who may not remember things as well as we used to (please refer to previous blog post about memory).

But….and it’s a BIG but…..there are some things we don’t get to know answers for.  We can guess at answers, or we can play with a variety of possible answers, or we can accept that sometimes there aren’t definitive answers. That’s tough for some of us.  Why in some places do people drive on the right side of the road and others on the left?  How do crumbs get in my silverware drawer when it’s nowhere near the toaster? Why are there so many different accents of the same language? How many licks till you get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?

I jest, but there are some questions in life that are much more serious and hard to understand.  When you ask those big questions and there seem to be no obvious answers, it requires a level of faith to accept that there are some things that we just can’t know.  If you’ve ever lost a loved one at a young age, you have a lot of questions.  When something bad happens to good people, you want to know the whys.  Questions as complex as these don’t have a logical, simple answers.  They challenge our faith.  I think they are supposed to. 

I have a strong faith that there is a God and that I have a relationship with Him.  I also think that God is so vast and unsearchable, that sometimes I can’t comprehend who He is or how He works.  I’m okay with that.  Some people aren’t.  My relationship trusts Him to know and do what is right and just and loving and good even when it doesn’t appear so to me.  For some people that doesn’t make sense.  I think sometimes religious institutions want to have all the answers tied up with a neat bow and those people who struggle with the all-too-tidy system that tries to explain hard things away, struggle with the perception of God that human organizations present. 

I recently read an interview with Dan Evans, husband of Rachel Held Evans, a young mother, author and blog writer, who died following a severe allergic reaction at the age of 37.  Rachel challenged some of the traditional views of faith and church life.  Whether you agree with her religious stances or not, she asked some of those hard questions many are afraid to.   After her death Dan said this, “I think sometimes in religion, we’re presented with things that we don’t know, and we don’t have to make a choice.  We can keep searching and learning more without being forced into a false sense of urgency. And so sometimes when I don’t know, I learn how to sit with that discomfort. I realize I don’t know, but also that I don’t have to know.”

There are things in this life that we will never fully understand.  There are things about God that in our humanity we can’t comprehend.  So as curious as I am about all things, I am required to have faith in the things that I can’t know and rest in that.  Scripture tells us that “faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).  It’s hard to understand the concept of faith if you’ve never had it, but faith is the answer to how you respond when you ask the questions and don’t get answers.  I think author James Barrie, who wrote Peter Pan, was onto something.  “All the world is made of faith and trust and a little bit of pixie dust.”  The world could use more of all of those about now. 

Love Means Having to Say You're Sorry

Some of you may not be old enough to remember the movie “Love Story”.  I was in Jr. High and saw that movie in a theater and cried buckets of tears as a dying Ali McGraw said to her on screen husband Ryan O’Neal, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”

I was quite young and naive at the time or I would have immediately recognized that’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard.  I know a few people who have a very hard time saying they are sorry and I can tell you for a fact that if you never learn to apologize, relationships will not go well for you.  Being willing to admit you are wrong and apologizing for it goes a long way toward restoring hard feelings in a marriage, a friendship, or even a casual relationship.  But for some reason beyond what I can understand, some people have a very hard time actually saying it. 

CBS News has a Sunday morning program that I enjoy that is mostly made up of human interest stories.  On a recent episode they did an expose about estranged families.  Stories included people who had had a falling out with a family member which led to a lifelong broken relationship.  One woman had not spoken to her mother for over fifty years and her mom died without ever restoring the relationship.  That’s a whole lot of guilt and regret to carry for the rest of your life.  Things might have been completely different had one of them had been willing to say, “I’m sorry.” 

Now I am well aware that there are people who apologize when it’s not even appropriate.  For them, it’s not about admitting wrong, but just “fixing” things.  I have been guilty of this at times. I have found myself apologizing when I did nothing wrong just to avoid drama.  Perhaps it makes more sense to say, “I am sorry you are feeling that way” or “I’m sorry if what I said hurt your feelings”, but that’s not dying on a sword that you did something wrong.  It’s just acknowledging another’s response. 

We all blow it.  Sometimes we blow it big time.  Sometimes we need to apologize.  Sometimes we say or do things in anger or selfishness or humanness.  Sometimes we react before we process.  We need to take a deep breath, admit we blew it, and apologize.  Almost always, being honestly apologetic remedies a lot of hurt.  Being unwilling to do so elicits a defense response that doesn’t help soften or restore anything. 

We shouldn’t have to apologize for who we are or what we believe or for setting boundaries. Sometimes someone being offended isn’t because we have done a wrong to them, but because their beliefs or expectations are different than ours.  That’s on them.  But us expressing our beliefs should not be unkind or belittling or hateful.  Healthy discussion about differences should not end in the need for apology. 

I’m no relationship expert, but it seems to make sense to learn to accept responsibility when you overreact, or say something unkind, or hurt someone with words. A genuine “I’m so sorry” goes a long way toward rebuilding, restoring, restarting. Ultimately there’s no guarantee it will solve every impasse. But if the relationship matters, restoration is what we all want, right?  Love means be willing to say you’re sorry.  Sorry Ali McGraw, you got this one all wrong. 

Lessons from the Waiting Room

This week my husband had to have a procedure that required a few hours in the cardiac wing in one of the huge medical centers in our city.  Hospitals are not my favorite places.  No matter the reason for being there, they make me feel anxious and edgy.  I try to concentrate on a book or scan my phone or read all the signs posted on the walls, but mostly I just want to be out of there from the minute we arrive.  Nothing goes quickly in hospitals, especially these days when they are short staffed and overloaded. Needless to say, I am a terrible waiting room waiter. 

Cardiac wings tend to have a lot of older patients, and thus, older people sitting in the waiting rooms.  Myself excluded, of course, because I am in denial about being labeled “older”.  On this particular day, one of those waiting was a 90-year-old gentleman who decided to be my friend.  He had driven himself 150 miles to get some blood work done and was planning to drive himself back 150 miles to get home.  He was incredibly mentally sharp and clearly just loved visiting. He reminded me a lot of my dad, the eternal extrovert who could drum up a conversation with anyone. This lovely man mostly talked the entire time while I just nodded or briefly commented.  He shared with me that being 90, he had outlived most of his family and friends.  He had had a twin sister who had passed a number of years ago.  He mentioned that last Sunday was his birthday and he wished his sister had been there because he bought himself a big cake and ended up taking pieces around his neighborhood due to the fact that he couldn’t begin to eat it all.  He was so upbeat and positive, which may be why he was still doing so well at 90.  Listening to him made the waiting room stay so much less painful.  He inspired me to count my blessings and find something to be grateful for in every day.

Not long after my new friend left the waiting area, another gentleman took his place.  His wife was having some stents inserted in her heart.  He was worried about her.  He couldn’t imagine life without her.  They had been married 50 years.  He shared a story about a friend of his who had died of a heart attack, was gone for nearly an hour and a half, but somehow was revived and came back to life.  This man gave his testimony at the United Nations about how miracles still happen. 

Somehow God must have known that I needed some companionship and inspiration while I sat in that waiting room because he put two people in my path that reminded me that life is worth celebrating and perspective is everything.  Older folks have so much wisdom to share and we often don’t spend enough time listening and learning from all their years of experience.  Some of the best conversations I had with my parents were when they knew their time was short and they wanted to share about the past and how it had shaped them.  If you know some “seasoned saints”, take the time to visit them.  Check in on them.  A lot of them are lonely.  Let them talk about anything they want to talk about.  You could very well glean nuggets of wisdom in those conversations. 

As for waiting rooms, I will never learn to like them.  But just maybe they will turn out to be places of connection with people if I let them.  Everyone has a story to tell, and if they are long enough, they help pass the time and calm my anxious waiting.  I’ll soon be spending another day in a waiting room as my husband is scheduled for another much longer cardiac procedure.  Maybe there will be a new friend waiting with me. 

Veteran's/Remembrance Day 2021

Freedom is never free.  To all those who have served or are serving to preserve our freedoms, thanks is not enough.  I honor you for your sacrifice.  I can never fully understand what it meant for you to put your country first.  You may have served or are serving at home or abroad, on the front lines or behind the scenes.  But you took a pause in your life and put others’ freedoms ahead of your own.  No doubt your service changed you, stretched you, grew you.  You probably didn’t come home the same person you were when you signed up or were drafted.  And I’m well aware that some didn’t come home at all.  I can only hope that you feel the gratitude of those of us who sometimes take our freedom for granted.  And though the words will never be adequate…..thank you! 

The Anatomy of Awe

I promised a much lighter topic after my little rant about the inaccuracy of the news.  So I started thinking of fun things I could write about, but nothing was coming.  Oh, I can ramble about most any subject, but nothing was sticking or inspiring me to write a whole blog post or even a poem (which sometimes are harder to write!) Then I got out my camera to take a photo.

As I’ve mentioned more than a few times, I have picked up my camera again and started trying to learn more about how to use it.  I will never be a professional, but I want to enjoy taking photos and have them turn out reasonably good.  What the experts keep telling me in all those YouTube videos is that the very best way to learn how to take great pictures is to take a lot of pictures.  I’ve shared some of my recent photos because it’s part of the reward of taking lots of photos.  And every once in a while, you take one that makes you think, “How in the world did I get that shot?  I didn’t see that through the lens.”  So I’m learning that photography is not all about skills, but about opportunity as well.

In practicing these last months, I have tried to take more pictures close up.  When you get right on top of something with your camera lens, you see things that otherwise you wouldn’t notice because there’s so much around you to look at and focus on that it’s easy to miss the details.  When I look at a string of photos for editing, some of those close ups are pretty amazing.  Nature photos are what I love best, and when you look at the intricacies of a leaf, or a flower, or a rock formation, or rain droplets, or light rays dancing off the surface of water, it can be truly awe-inspiring. 

How often do we miss things because we don’t look closely enough?  Our minds are so distractible that we fail to observe the small beauties around us.  How frequently do we miss someone’s subtle expression that tells a story of what they are going through?  When was the last time you had a “wow” moment from seeing something or someone like you’ve never seen them before because you took the time to look below the surface.

I want to be blown away every day by the awesomeness of life.  Even if we’re going through hard things, we can find those small glimmers of light, those tiny droplets of hope, the magic that is always all around us, but we miss it because we’re busy focusing on the big picture.  Take the time to get close and look with a telephoto viewpoint.  There’s so much out there that can create take-your-breath-away moments if you only stop and look. 

My wish is for you to have an encounter of the close-up kind that leaves you in awe and celebrating the beauty of life.  When you see it, take a photo, write it down, or share it with someone who could use a moment of awe in their day, too.  Look to be awe-filled and awesome today.  There’s plenty of awesomeness to go around – get your piece of it!

Just the Facts, Ma'am

I designed this blog to be a place where people can find positivity, hope, humor, and light-hearted human interest topics.  I think there’s plenty of negative, politically-based, biased, heavy things to read these days and I vowed when I started this, I would not participate in any of those.  But I have a growing fire in my belly that I decided to write about for my own sake as well as for those of you who may be feeling the same.  I’ve taken the news in small bites in recent years, especially the last two.  There’s a reason for that beyond that it’s dark and depressing every single day if you listen to the major media outlets.  More than being wearied by the bad news bears to the point of complete disillusionment, it’s because I no longer trust our news sources to deliver objective, truthful reporting.  For those of you from countries outside the US, I’m guessing some of this might apply to your news agencies as well.

If you are a regular follower of my blog, you already know that writing has been my forte most of my life.  I got involved in every print publication opportunity that came up in my schooling.  I was a reporter on school newspapers, I was the editor of our high school yearbook.  It wasn’t just what I enjoyed doing, it was my passion.  There were no questions in my mind that I would pursue a career in journalism.  It’s what I went to university to study.  I wasn’t sure how my passion would play out in the journalistic world, but I knew there was something really good about objective reporting of facts so that readers could know what truly was happening. 

In my home growing up, my parents watched the evening news and read the newspaper every day.  We followed all the major world events and talked about what was going on locally, nationally, and worldwide.  It was the era of famous news anchors like Cronkite, Huntley, Brinkley, Jennings, Reasoner.  What each of these had in common was their objective, passionate reporting of the facts of events.  It’s not that they never did editorials or commentaries, but when they did, it was made very clear that those were opinion-based. 

In a recent interview with Ben Swann by Ben Raue, it was pointed out that a lot of things in the news world began to change with the television program, “60 Minutes”.  It was a weekly “news magazine” on CBS.  It offered hard-hitting investigative reports by well-known journalists.  It was transformative in that the format was different than anything before it.  What was also different was that it was financially lucrative for the network, while regular news programs were not.  Companies could purchase advertising that was aired between segments.  It also mingled sponsors and journalistic integrity because what network was going to out something less than desirable from a sponsor of their program? While they should, and some did, it still started news coverage down a very slippery slope.   

You’ve probably heard of the Associated Press.  It’s a non-profit, independent news agency that provides breaking news from all over the world to national and local news organizations. It’s been around a long time (since 1846!) and nearly all journalistic organizations have relied on them for up-to- the-minute, fact-based information.  Its members are US newspapers and broadcasters.  What you may not know is that news organizations may draw from an AP release and edit or tailor it to fit their news audience.  When that happens, it’s no longer a firsthand source.  But since it’s impossible for journalists to be everywhere, organizations must rely on their writers and editors to keep the integrity of the information before it’s distributed. 

I can tell you in no uncertain terms that the integrity of the news has become very cloudy in recent years.  If you listen to news programs today, or read articles in print publications, you can hear a definite bias.  In this digital age, reporters are influenced by their own political leanings and personal preferences that shape the reporting they do.  It's now generally accepted that news organizations lean either liberal or conservative. They are told what to report by higher ups who are not journalists but have profit agendas for their companies. With social media choosing its own “fact-checking” systems, it’s very hard to sort what really is true and accurate.  The phrase, “something’s rotten in Denmark” comes to mind.  That’s a euphemism for corruption or something being less than reliable.  Walter Cronkite must be turning over in his grave, so to speak. 

I long for the “good old days” when news was “just the facts, ma’am”.  Edward R. Murrow said it best, “To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable, we must be credible; to be credible, we must be truthful.”  In all my journalism classes, my teachers would check us on anything that wasn’t firsthand information or anything embellished in any way to make the story more interesting.  I think that kind of teaching isn’t happening anymore.  It’s breaks my journalistic heart. 

I write this to remind you that all you read or hear isn’t necessarily fact.  As has been said, “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.”  Also don’t buy into everything you read or hear in the mainstream media.  If it smells like a fish, it probably is a fish.  Look at varieties of sources and don’t take everything at face value.  There are good journalists out there, but they are getting harder to find.  In the meantime, back to my regularly scheduled programming.  Maybe my next post will be about baby animals or what I plan to eat for Thanksgiving.  Thanks for indulging me. 

The Final Frontier

The past few days I’ve been “farm-sitting” for friends.  Their small farm is located on a high plateau not far from where we live, but the views are completely different.  It’s a refreshing change of scenery with thriving fruit orchards and food-producing fields of green and gold.  Our home is on a hillside above a river and we are surrounded by towering pine trees.  We have some very nice sunrises and sunsets, but we don’t have the wide-open view that the farm has. 

Over the weekend, the weather prognosticators (add that to your vocabulary for the day) had predicted the potential of Aurora Borealis sightings.  I was excited that we were staying on the bluff where there would be a clear view to the north. With no city lights visible, there was hope that we would get to see the rare occurrence. Throughout the evening, both my husband and I would pop outside to check the horizon.  After he gave up and went to bed, I wandered out a few more times “just in case”.  The northern lights did not make an appearance, but I stood outside and took in the crystal clear starry night.  The deep black cloudless sky was host to all the constellations in all their glory.  It was breathtaking. 

Space is something that’s hard to even fathom.  While it is the source of endless mysteries, we know that it all somehow manages to hold together to create galaxies, solar systems, stars, and planets.  To me it’s no accident that somehow this little planet of ours stays in perfect rotation around the sun at a distance that allows life to thrive.  We share that rotation with a group of other planets that do not share our perfect blend of land and water and air that sustain all sorts of life.  Even though we are doing our best to make a mess of our beautiful planet, that is a topic for discussion elsewhere. And, by the way, while I know there are still some who believe the earth is flat, I’m pretty comfortable that it is not.  What I do know is that we are not here by mere chance.  It’s all part of a grand design. 

We earthlings have a fascination about knowing what is out in space in and beyond our own little Milky Way galaxy.  We have worked for a very long time to send things and people out there to see what there is to see and send back pictures.  Here are just a few things that we’ve come to understand about what we’ve learned in our exploration:

1.    In space, no one can hear you scream.  Space is silent because sound cannot travel in a vacuum.  The space outside of our own atmosphere is not a perfect vacuum, but it’s not one where sound waves can travel. 
2.    There are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on the earth.
3.    Dark matter, which we know exists in space, is composed of particles that do not absorb, reflect or emit light and cannot be seen directly. We only know it exists because of its effect on objects around it.
4.   When massive stars run out of fuel, they end their lives in gigantic explosions called supernovas. These blasts are so bright they can briefly outshine entire galaxies.
5.    A black hole is a region in space where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape from it.
6.    One million earths can fit inside the sun.
7.    The Apollo astronauts’ footprints on the moon could stay there as long as a hundred million years (if space still exists a hundred million years from now).
8.   We are able to have solar eclipses because the sun is exactly 400 times the size of the moon, but the moon is 400 times closer to earth.
9.   The most distant human-made object in space is Spacecraft Voyager 1 which is currently over 13 billion miles from earth.
10.  A nebula is an enormous cloud of dust and gas occupying the space between stars and is a nursery for new stars. 

Mind blown yet?  If you need to see more, search Hubble Telescope photography.  Some of it seems incomprehensible when you consider the vastness and the order that has to exist for us to be where we are in time and space.  Next time you look up at the stars, know that what you can see is a pin dot in the universe.  And yet, the universe wouldn’t be the same without you or me.  I believe to the grand designer we are not random or unplanned or unnecessary. We are all a critical part of the bigger plan and have a purpose beyond our own comprehension.  No matter how small we may seem in this giant universe, we matter big time to the Creator of it all.   All we have to do is shine like the stars in a night sky. 

Photo credits to NASA courtesy of the International Space Station, Voyager Spacecraft, and Hubble Telescope.