0015: Perspective & Wonder

During my walk this morning I was noticing how much life goes on in smaller realms. I bet there are tiny life forms that have as stressful or as serene a life as we have. Here are a few shots of these "smaller" life forms... 

Breakfast?

The snail was as big as my thumbnail...

 Alex Wild (mymercos.net)

Then I started getting hot, the sun was coming up and I was beginning to sweat - I know, me sweating, oh my! But my thoughts turned towards the sun and how lucky we are to have it. (Trivia: did you know that the Sun's diameter is 100 times that of the Earth?!?!?!?) I was trying to be optimistic as I sweated my way home - I WAS getting my vitamin D after all... Then I thought of the final space shuttle mission. I was sad to think it was all over, but it couldn't be or could it? So I did a tiny bit of research... First I got caught up in the gazillion AMAZING pictures NASA has online.

Pic of the Southern Lights or Aurora Australis while visiting the ISS (International Space Station).

Then I laughed and thought here I was thinking of the "tiny" life forms in my neighborhood and I am the TINY life form!!! I stared in awe at these NASA shots as I tried to grasp how small we really are...

My home state: Florida

How brave is this astronaut! Getting farther...

There is that moon,
Looks pretty close...

I still see Florida...

Earth in relation to the other planets, in our solar system...
www.lunarland.com

We basically live one of the four smallest planets. And News Flash - We as a planet, and certainly as individuals, are not the center of the universe :-) I then found a NASA statement from 7/1/11 promising that there is still more to come, a lot more - that made me happy. (Check it out - What's Next for NASA? Click here.) 

Then I found another article about new, giant planets that were discovered just last year! NASA's Kepler Space Telescope detected its first five exoplanets, or planetsbeyond our Solar System. The planets range in size from an object that has a radius four times that of Earth, to worlds much bigger than even our Jupiter. (Click here for more.)  Are we feeling small yet?

So back to us... 

Funny how a little perspective can change your entire thinking and can fill your mind with wonder a million times beyond what we think of on a normal basis - assuming you don't work for NASA!!