Before you say anything, no I wasn't visited and probed by little green men over the weekend. I was in fact inspired the other night after watching a documentary on the possible existence of extraterrestrial life. This show gathered encounters, experiences, and stories from a range of credible intellectuals who all believe that there is life outside of our own planet. Laugh if you will, but I too am one of those believers. I remember watching a documentary in primary school as a little tyke, and as we were all engrossed in the images of stars and spaceships - our knees drawn up to our chests, eyes glued to the screen - I remember the narrator exclaiming that "there is something bigger out there" and that "we are not alone". What i found extremely interesting is that UFO's and ET's are not a recent thing manufactured by vivid and out-there imaginations or loony talk from rednecks in the deep south; the thought that there is life outside our own planet has been around since the 4th century where it was first recorded in Chinese texts that a "moon boat" hovered above the country every 12 years. Even the Ancient Egyptians recorded sightings of UFO's, validated by the etching of a little man in a round spaceship managing a joystick on the wall of a temple along with images of a fleet of flying saucers on an ancient papyrus. But never mind all that, I'm not writing today to talk about conspiracy theories. (no matter how interesting a write-up that would be I don't believe I have the brainpower to churn out something of that scale nor the emotional capability that comes with the onslaught of slack I'd receive in doing so) No, the reason I bring up aliens is because a, that documentary has turned me into a science nut and b, it reminded me that no matter what we are going through in life, there is always something bigger than what we are facing. Just think about it! Better yet, if you are currently seated near a window I want you to peer out for a minute and look up at the sky. How freakin' huge is that thing! and beyond those clouds is something even more expansive! Doesn't that make you feel so small, so insignificant in the wider world of things?? I remember as a child I'd go to bed often in a huff because I'd been dealt a bad hand that day; ie. I may have spilt chocolate milk over my new dress and got the third degree from mum, or the boy I had a crush on at school called me "giraffe" for being so tall. Anyways, my bed was next to a pretty decent sized window. And I'd always look out up into the night sky and watch the stars twinkle. Sometimes I'd be lucky enough to even see a shooting star or a satellite. And as I did this I immediately felt better. Those stars a million miles away always reminded me that things would get better and that no matter what I was dealing with, it will eventually come to pass as quickly as the night turned into day. For just a minute I'd forget about the little trivial things I was getting in a tangle over and realise that in comparison to the sky above me, I was insignificant. So it didn't matter if I stuttered my words during a public talk, or that I got knocked back from a job I really wanted. It may have seemed a big deal to me but in the bigger picture it wasn't that big a deal at all. Even - if you care to bare with me -take this example and imagine how we even came into being in the first place. How did we end up here, how did our planet form, how did the solar system that our planet resides in form, how did the universe form? the planets, the stars? Now that's a big deal! and yet, we seem to take it all for granted. Sure, we'll make a big deal over that so and so who cut us off at the lights this morning, or that person who 'did us wrong' how many years ago, but at the end of the day whats really important? What really matters? That we are alive - we are living - and not only that, but we are so very lucky to experience this world in all its infinite glory. Look up at the sky today Damsels, and thank your lucky stars for it.
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