The AWE-FULL Cosmos

Take a couple of minutes and try to fathom this:

There are billions and billions of galaxies in the Universe but the one that's closest to the Milky Way, where our solar system is housed, is called Andromeda. If you wanted to visit Andromeda this is what it would entail:

You would have to travel at the speed of light -- about 186,000 miles per second, which happens to be the distance from earth to the moon -- for, 

are you sitting down?

2.3 million years.

Whenever I hear or read about these astonishing facts like these, I am stopped in my tracks. They take my breath away.

I'm humbled. And thrilled all at once.

I'm almost as awed by these orange cosmos flowers, which grew from thin little black seeds I planted in a bit of dirt in an egg carton this spring. Now they are three feet high and sprouting every which way in the garden.

I'm just as awed by my niece Lauren's baby. I saw Lily Kay the other day at a family picnic. Lily has crystal blue eyes and the softest pink skin and curly hair that is almost the color of the cosmos flowers. She just turned one and she babbles on and on points and claps and smiles and crinkles up her eyes and pats her belly button and all of it melts your heart. Like my beloved granddaughter Dani, she is a joy to behold.

As Lauren pointed out the other day, babies are miracles through and through.

"One day there was nothing, and then all of a sudden there was this new human," Lauren said.

*******

It just started raining this morning. It is coming down hard. It's chilly. But the yard is still lush green. Full of flowers.

Outside the kitchen window, the bee balm is crisp brown. I haven't had the heart to cut the stalks down. 

Worst of all, the hummingbirds are gone. I miss them viscerally. I miss the thrumming of their wings coming to the feeders. I miss them dive bombing each other. 

How come summer goes so fast, while winter's ice and snow lingers almost until May?

*******

I miss writing. I miss having the inspiration that carried me through so many chapters over so many months. 

I thought I was writing a book.

Now I'm not so sure.

I just miss writing.

Writer Brenda Ueland, who believed writing was a spiritual endeavor, says "Inspiration comes very slowly and quietly. When I wait with inspiration, my time is not wasted."

So I will wait. 

*****

The next morning, a hummer landed on the feeder while I am meditating. HURRAH FOR HUMMERS!!!