“... it’s more when you sense that there is something so much bigger than you,
So much more deep than you are. Ancient. Has sort of a natural importance
that dwarfs your own, but you’re a person seeing it, you’re a person thats
Interpreting it, you’re understanding in your own way. And you’d have to be a
stone to not have that affect you.” Colonel Chris Hadfeld
When I was very young, I existed mainly within, introverted, but more so out of protection and safety. And because I held myself in this narrow chamber, although I could feel what was going on around me, I mostly knew me as the only reference point and therefore, what was happening to me. And with this, I took all things personally. That is, until I lost my brother. After dealing, for years, with the devastation of the betrayal and abandonment I charged him with, when things became calmer, quieter, more distant, I took a step back and looked at things from a wider lens and from that vantage point, I could see that the story began to change. And the more I gave myself permission to step back and allow this blank canvas to evolve on its own, the larger and clearer the picture stretched across my view. It was at the moment when I reached the optimum distance, that I saw the big picture, realized it wasn’t about me at all and regretted the last years I could have been there for him.
From that deep and profound experience, I kept opening up my field of vision, stepping back, in greater distance, rewinding the tapes, prior to the onset, prior to when there was one notion, an emotion, a thought. And then I would go forward cautiously, making sure to filter out any opinions, judgements, feelings that may alter the story I was watching unfold, that would place me in a pristine light while casting all others the villains. And by having a larger view of things, I would always be left with that “aha” moment, that switch being flipped and the light bulb on, where the story would end with the spotlight on me, the creator of my own destiny. And it would propel me to a higher understanding where the view is more inclusive, the connection more impactful, where everything and everyone stands on even ground.
In six months, there will be another story unfolding, a bigger picture, a historical view, stepping back into our own creation, creation of our universe, when the James Webb Telescope will be fully deployed and commencing operations. After years of delay, both in construction and launch, the telescope was launched on December 25th as a collaboration of three Space Agencies; a beautiful Christmas gift to the entire world. The mission: “.. to explore every phase of cosmic history from within the solar system to the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe, and everything in between.” A cousin to Hubble, Webb will help us to understand the origins of the Universe, looking back in time to the point of creation.
The telescope design is a beautiful piece of origami, segmented and folded in order to fit inside the Ariane 5 rocket which delivered it successfully to space. Its largest primary mirror is 21’ 3” with the back of the telescope facing the sun at 185F degrees and the mirrored side at -388F degrees, with a sun shield that provides an SPF 1 million sunscreen coverage. The mirror segments have completed alignment and for the next 30 days the telescope optics will be aligned. Webb is orbiting the sun further out than the earth, and will go in and out of earth’s shadow every 90 minutes, taking six months to complete one orbit. Six months from the time of launch, Webb will begin its science mission with routine science operations and successfully bring all of us the bigger picture. For those of you wishing to learn more, here is the link to all things Webb: https://www.jwst.nasa.gov
We may not always want to look at the big picture, however, if we do give ourselves that distance to see more than what we first grabbed onto, we may be more impacted, in a good way, than we could have ever imagined and reach that place of reverence and awe to understand that there is something much bigger than the narrow view we present to ourselves.
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