It’s been a big week for the universe1. Or, at least our concept of it— made a little bit more magical by tonight’s full moon.
Here is your assignment: go out and look at the sky tonight.
With any luck, it won’t be cloudy, and you’ll see a big, fat, ripe, full moon. A supermoon, in fact. Right now the moon is at its closest point to the earth, so it will appear larger and closer than normal.
If your evening routine is to eat dinner then relax into the couch for some TV or reading, tonight is your chance to shake things up a bit. Go outside, and drink in the moon.
Do whatever you need to do to get yourself comfortable so you may bathe in moonlight. Play with your moon shadow. Stare at the moon. Sure, try to snap a photo or two, but be warned the moon is a modest model, who won’t be captured easily on your phone. With that out of your system, let yourself get a little high off of moonbeams. Activate your dreamy state. Allow your mind to meander.
Bring your awareness to your thoughts at the top of your head, then invite them to rise up, higher and higher, like a balloon. Picture the earth growing smaller and smaller, farther and farther away. You’re floating in space. Flap your arms and your legs. Feel how different movements propel you through space. Try breaststroke, maybe backstroke if your arms get tired. How many somersaults or backflips in a row can you do? This is an olympic-level event.
Flap your wings. Practice soaring and swooping like an eagle. As you get nearer the moon, resist the urge to land right away so you may perform a few fly-bys. Keep your eyes peeled for a flag, maybe a golf ball. Your moon landing will be gentle, and you should be fine in bare feet. Find a nice perch on the edge of a crater, with your feet dangling into the basin and enjoy a quick picnic.
As you gaze over the crater and at earth, notice how small everything is: all of the dramas and the problems, the deadlines, worries and anxieties, they all seem so far away and so insignificant from the vantage point. When you’re done eating, pack your trash in your pocket. Stand up and brush moon dirt off of your bottom. Check out the rocks near your feet. Pick one up. Notice how it feels in your hand, the texture, the weight. Don’t resist the urge to drop it in your pocket.
Walk around a bit. Can you see your shadow? Do you see any debris? Jump, scoot, walk yourself around to the dark side. Don’t be scared, it isn’t really dark, it merely can’t be seen from the earth. Now look out into space. Keep breathing. Don’t try counting, there’s an infinite number of galaxies, stars, and planets.
Forever.
It goes on forever. And you can see it in all of its grace and glory. More colors than you thought were possible. Go ahead, reach out, touch. You’re safe. Launch yourself out into the glittering galactic vastness. Dance to the twinkle of distant stars. Hula-hoop in the rings of saturn. Splash around in sunshine of nascent stars. Climb nebular mountains and soar off of cosmic cliffs.
This is your universe. Play.
When you’re done cavorting in the skies, navigate your way back to earth. Buzz past Jupiter, maybe apologize to Pluto about the mix-up and tell it you’ll always be a planet to me. Float past our moon, give her a wink. Perform a few more flips and somersaults before landing softly, like a feather, back in your body on earth. Sit up straight, take a deep breath, and check your pockets for rocks.
This is your world. You are part of it. You, on the third planet from the star in a solar system, nestled inside one of billions of galaxies. You, composed of billions of atoms, each its own teeny tiny solar system-like structure of electrons orbiting around their sun, the nucleus. Perhaps our solar system is a miniscule part of a miniscule atom of dirt under the tip of a giant’s fingernail. Perhaps the dirt under your fingernail contains a universe of galaxies; in one of those, on an infinitesimal electron, a teeny tiny creature cleans dirt out from under their fingernail while looking at images from their most powerful telescope and tries to make sense of what they see.
Know that this journey is always available to you via the electrified three pound meat lump inside of your skull, aka: your imagination.
And never forget that you are made of stardust.
Want to nerd out a little bit?
The James Webb Space telescope, which is the Earth’s largest, most advanced telescope, launched into space in December 2021. It’s orbiting far beyond our moon transmitting sky pics back to its lab in Baltimore, MD. This week, NASA and Webb scientists have released the first batch of images. Profound and moving, these images are dense with information and will change our understanding of the world as we know it.