From now on, whenever I get into one of my ‘controlling’ moods, I should try to keep in mind some rather astonishing facts I uncovered in my reading yesterday. As I was searching the internet, I happened to stumble upon the fact that the earth rotates on its axis at a speed of about 1,000 miles per hour, and that it travels around the sun at the astounding speed of 67,000 miles per hour. When I read that, I sat back in my chair and tried to take in the idea that I’m living on a ball that’s traveling at unthinkable speeds. While I’m sitting in my quiet apartment staring at my computer screen, the ‘ship’ on which I’m a passenger is tearing through space in a breakneck way, both twirling and zooming – and it’s been doing this for at least 15 billion years. Now, in the future, when I get bogged down with thoughts of controlling any and everything in my life, I need to remember these marvelous truths about this universe that I’m part of. Billions of years ago, the cosmos created itself and started stars and planets spinning and rocketing, and it has been successfully engineering its own life ever since. The universe controls everything, from the pumping of my heart to the rotations of planets, and it does it in a smooth and harmonious manner. My question for myself should be, “Where do you come off thinking you have to control anything?” I am an infinitely miniscule (but nonetheless vital) member of the immeasurable team called the universe, but I am not the coach or the manager. I am like a wave in an endless ocean, and can a single wave control what the great ocean does? In the future, when the urge comes over me to “get things under control”, I hope I can recall the great facts of reality, and just relax and enjoy the unbelievably rapid ride the universe is providing for me.

-- written on December 25, 2007