I was glued as the four astronauts — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen — launched into deep space on April 1st and spent ten days journeying around the Moon and back. 

They traveled 252,756 miles from home NASA,  farther from Earth than any human has been in over half a century, and splashed down safely in the Pacific last Friday. I watched quite a lot of the journey, and every time my hand reached for my heart. This one got me.

I’ve not intently followed any space exploration or launch since Challenger. It was my friend’s birthday, and I can still remember watching the explosion live on TV. It was so horrific. I guess you can say I was traumatized.

But something awoken inside of my during this journey. I had to watch. In fact, I felt called to watch.

Looking at those images of Earth from that distance, I felt something I already knew deep in my body. “I am in the universe. And the universe is within me.” A phrase I learned in my Qigong training.  It means that the body is a reflection of the universe. Let that sink in.

Okay I need you to stay with me for a second because this one got me.

Here’s what hit me

Biology teacher mode, coupled with imagination came out. The trillions of cells in your body are microscopic, invisible, going about their business. And together, they make up something extraordinary. Something alive. Something whole. Something that laughs and loves and feels and dreams. YOU. ME.

Now zoom out

Go up as far as you can into space and look down.

We are those cells. We are the microscopic bits. And this earth we live on, this whole planet, is just as invisible from deep space as your cells are to the naked eye. We are part of something so much bigger than we can even fully comprehend. 

Meanwhile, humans are down here on earth acting up. I wonder if the organelles (mitochondria, vacuoles, ribosomes, ER, etc.) in the cells act up like the humans do? And by the way, the humans on earth are the equivalent to the organelles in the cells. 

So think of the earth as a cell, and humans the organelles in the cells doing the work. I can go so much further and deeper with this analogy. But I’ll stop here. Engage your imagination.

I genuinely love that we can’t fully comprehend it. Because that’s where imagination gets to run wild. That’s where my imagination and Aquarian brain began to run wild. 

What IS that bigger thing we’re a part of? What is it doing? What is it becoming? I don’t know. 

If the universe is within me, and I am within the universe, then I am never actually small. I am never actually alone. I am connected to something so big that only my imagination can hold.

And same goes for you. You are not small. You are not alone. You are connected to something so big that only your imagination can hold.

Anyway, just wanted to share the stirring experience, and thoughts that came up for me during this historic journey.

Did you watch the Artemis II journey? What did it stir up for you? 

Hit reply and let’s talk about it.