The universe started with a bang. Out of that explosion, came gases, cosmic dust and energy that formed our galaxy and our solar system. In that solar system, is our planet earth, also the product of those gases and dust. And out of that dust on one of the planets circling the sun, came life and after many millions of years, came the amazing thing that is the human being.
A mass of cells, fluids and bones and millions of tiny electrical sparks that keep our heads and hearts functioning from the day we were conceived to the day we pass on. Truly, when we die, we return to our origins. As the book of common prayer says, “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust”. This is so profound. Even just thinking of all this puts a shiver up my back when I think that the book of common prayer was written in 1662- long before the theory of big bang was known. Other religions also talk about going back to dust when we die.
Like us, the stars also go through life and death and turning to dust and light. They expand and contract, have their systems and life spans. The whole universe seems like a gigantic system of life. When I meditate, I picture the light and energy from the universe permeating my life and re-uniting with the bits of the cosmic dust that must be part of my body and were part of the lives of the stars before we separated and became different things. I imagine the light echoes or the light reflected from the gases around an exploding star coming to me through the vastness of space.
It doesn’t take much imagination to see how close the photos of galaxies taken by the Hubble telescope are to the images of inside our body taken by a micro cameras. We are the universe in miniature. I tell myself I am part of this giant cosmic drama, I am this dust, I am this light, I am the energy and I am the star!
A Value Creating Life 