In the night sky, the moon fades and yet, as we step through the stillness of the winter solstice, the sun’s brilliance begins to return. Yes, upon entering the chilliest season of the year, the northern hemisphere of this electron we call Earth leans further into the energy focused on us by the proton we call Sun. Meanwhile, in the southern hemisphere of Earth’s geography, the planet’s face begins to lean away from the energy, even as summer’s heat spreads southward. Clearly there are stark differences in climate depending on geographic location and timing.
From a wider perspective, our solar system is traveling at 140 miles per second to orbit the nucleus of the milky way galaxy at a period of what appears to be 230 million years. In other words, we haven’t been at this geographic location in the galaxy since the Triassic. The Triassic appears to have been an epoch when the climate was hot and dry. Might the galactic geography have an influence on climate just as the planetary geography does?
The ways of our living cosmos may seem complex, confusing and even terrifying when examined myopically. However, upon holistic examination, a beautiful pattern emerges. This pattern is fractal, similar at every scale, and comprised of constant change. Within it, dark chases light, heat chases cold, yin and yang, male and female, spring and fall, winter and summer. Even our consciousness follows these patterns; fear and love, disconnected and holistic, knowledge and wisdom.
Through it all one truth emerges, at least for an individual incorporated with an electron, spinning around a proton that is in turn orbiting a larger proton. This truth transcends time and can be stated as: what I know is finite, what I do not know is infinite. It matters not whether I am Tesla or Einstein, Picasso or Caravaggio, Sean or Michael; the more I know, the more I know I don’t know.
The stillness of the winter solstice can act like calm water’s mirror. If I gather the time to look into it, I can see myself in the great sense of we. The I that is everything.
With the openness of love, let me face the reflection of constant change. Upon seeing it, let me not be closed by the fear of losing what was, but instead opened by the love of what everychanging is. The future starts now.
