Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically. That’s kinda cool! That makes me smile and I actually feel quite large at the end of that. It’s not that we are better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us.”
~ Neil deGrasse Tyson
All matter is made of atoms that were created in the center of stars. So if you think about it, when we look up into the sky at night, our eyes are actually looking back in time at the very things that created them. No wonder its so awe inspiring! In a way, we are the universe looking at and learning about itself.
Human Eyes and Nebula
"Ancient lovers believed a kiss would literally unite their souls, because the spirit was said to be carried in one’s breath."
— Eve Glicksman (via hoodoothatvoodoo)
We are so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value that we forget that the inner value, the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it’s all about.”
For many of us, we’ve never been taught to identify with an inner journey. So we seek continuously outwardly. Partly this is due to our living in a culture that only measures results by the things we achieve and the amount of money we make.
The problem with an externally-referenced – i.e., outward – journey only is that we can continue to achieve results on an outer scale, but we eventually find that we’re unfulfilled but can’t understand why.
The journey we’re all on is a journey of discovering the inner self. The inner world offers us everything that we think the outer world provides, as an artist and as a person.
You gain access to imagination and discover hidden meaning and deeper feeling. You tap into resources of potential and possibility you never knew you possessed. You realize you’re much smarter and stronger and talented than the outer world either confirms or denies. You begin to take outer experiences less personally because the inner can’t ever be affected by the outer. It’s impervious.
The outer (whether we like it or not) is always temporary. Always transitory. Things don’t last. You grow tired of something. You want something bigger or brighter or prettier or younger or flashier. So you trade it in for an upgrade. Again and again.
The inner is your cornerstone. It’s changeless. It’s with you always. It actually is you.
The inner is the clay. It’s the filling in the cherry pie. It’s the grist to the mill. It’s the part we mistake for the outer – which sadly often then distracts us with its window dressings – that we never even discover we have an inner.
Let the inner inform the outer. Not the other way around. And as you do, you’ll start experiencing your outer life becoming more free, more fun, more abundant, more exciting, more fulfilling, more passionate.
In short, all the things that you wanted to have happen in the first place.
~Joseph Campbell
