The Happiness of Perspective
As the sun sank behind the western hills this evening, painting the great sweeps of clouds a pale gold, the moon rose in the east, nearly full. I watched it float above the trees, soaring higher by the second.
No matter what direction I looked, the sky was breathtaking in its beauty and I spun around in the field trying to drink it all it at once.
Now that the nights have grown long, I’m up before the sunrise, and I watch it set as I drive home from work. I love the perspective that seeing the sunrise and sunset adds to my day. They remind me that I’m living in the midst of a grand mystery.
“Hey!” the sky says, “I’m not wallpaper. I’m not just the backdrop of a movie set. I’m space. And I go on and on and on.” And I remember that I’m living on a little speck of a planet that’s sailing through the Milky Way and dancing ‘round a star. How amazing is that! And yet, as tiny as that may make me seem, I’m somehow possessed of a mind that knows that’s where I am. I’m part of a society that’s capable of teaching me what the Milky Way is, and that’s sent a camera out into its depths to beam back photographs of its wonders.
It’s good to remember that now and then. It saves you from your self-importance and puts you in touch with your true nobility. Even though you can’t answer the big questions—how it all began, why we’re here—at least you can ask them. And you can sense that you’re a part of an immensity that smacks of consciousness and intelligent design.
Posted in The Feeling of Happiness 
