Our place in the cosmos – part 2

"We are a way for the cosmos to know itself." ― Carl Sagan, Cosmos

We are stardust breathing and dreaming and thinking and creating. Our very bodies are made of elements born in centres of long-gone stars.

Eyes evolved and we saw the stars. We are stardust star watching. We are the cosmos seeing itself.

Critical thinking evolved and we thought about the stars. We are stardust contemplating the heavens. We are the cosmos exploring itself.

Imagination evolved and we dreamed ourselves among the stars. We are stardust inventing the future of the stars. We are the cosmos creating itself.

But we are not unique. Our world is made of stardust. Every life on this earth owes its being to the death of stars.

Our eyes are not the only ones seeing.

Some of the beings with whom we share this beautiful world see things we cannot and perceive things we are not equipped to observe. The mushroom, the crow, and the oak tree are all stardust seeing the stars in their unique ways. The mountain, the wind, and the ocean are all cosmos perceiving the cosmos with their different understandings.

We are not special, but we are part of something immense. Though we are the cosmos, it is also beyond our understanding, because to understand it requires the simultaneous views of the mushroom, the tree, the ocean, and the human. But we can pray and meditate and do ritual and get a little closer to our source. We are made of stardust and to the stars we will return.