Long before the days of the white man, in fact when all of Europe was still a wilderness – to say nothing of what we today call ‘America’ – the Maya in the Yucatan had a thriving commerce based on silver & gold … and charted the heavens with a stunning accuracy that still stands today.
From their observatories on the temple mount high atop the jungle, in a society that revered nothing if not time – they were the very first to witness the sunrise …. and the last to admire and pray upon the sunset.
My studies with the Maya have taught me many things, but chief among them is this thought process that I share with you here:
With talk of the recent ‘Super Blood Wolf Moon’ still fresh, travel with me on a meditation of the mind as I walk you through some ‘Spiritual Aerobics’ – a stretching exercise as it were – and yet use science, facts & logic all along the way…
Our Moon in the night sky is roughly 240,000 miles from Earth, while our sun is 93 million miles away. The Speed of Light clocks-in at 186,000 miles/second! Really. So, it takes our sun’s rays a little over 8-and-a-half minutes to make the journey from their origin until they reach our Earth.
Now, if light travels that FAR that FAST, can you even begin to get your mind around the distance light would travel in an hour? A day? A week?
How about a year?!?
This is what the scientist ~ in the days before Columbus, before Galileo ~ the Mayan astronomer would call a ‘Light Year’.
Now, picture yourself camping on a star-filled night under the stars’ heavenly canopy. Pick out a star. Among the billions of possibilities, for the sake of example, let’s choose Betelgeuse, which sits in the middle of the Belt of Orion.
This ‘star’ – this SUN – is 642.5 LIGHT YEARS from Earth! So, in the same way as our sun’s rays take just over 8 minutes to make their journey, here’s the punchline —
That ‘starlight’ touching your eye left Betelgeuse BEFORE your grandparents’ grandparents’ grandparents … were BORN!
Earth, the 3rd rock from the sun, is but a very small grain of sand on a rather immense & intense beach. And it is not our final home. Even the Carpenter from Nazareth would talk of the fact that His Father’s House had many rooms. H-m-mm….
So, past all the science, numbers & math … ‘at the end of the day’ as the white man is often wont to say, what’s the take-away message?
It is simply this: let’s you & I let the ego go. E-G-O … Earth Guide Only, Edging God Out, Eliminating Golden Opportunities … Forget the silly turf wars, dial-down all the drama & conflict, and at least TRY to Increase The Peace.
Pause to consider, it’s called the ‘Universe’… break it down – ‘Uni’ {One} …. ‘Verse’ {Song} .
We all need to learn to sing the same song.
After all, in the ‘Big Picture’, from the ‘Slippery Slope, at the ‘End of the Day’ (dare I say ‘literally’?) ….
You and I are but germs on a rock ball spinning around a ball of fire!
~ Micheal Ziants
Putting in time here on the 3rd rock, from the New Jer-USA-lem
