Nature

Life’s magnificent, extraordinary resilience.

Since the beginning of our known history, humankind has uncovered exquisite, extraordinary, paradigm-changing explanations of the cosmos around us all with incisive insight and nuanced expansiveness with ever-increasing complexity. The scale of these discoveries and the velocity at which they have been achieved is nothing short of breathtaking. 

Amongst my favorite words ever said by another, are these few by Edward O. Wilson. I would have loved to have heard his explanation for this poetic insight, and can only hope his vision aligns with my own. 

“A lifetime can be spent on a Magellanic voyage 

around the base of a single tree.” 

In my mind, herein lies two things. First, a childlike wonder of relentless quality, fully alive to the vastness of reality and one’s own experience, captured and recontextualized across time. Second, an antidote to the incessant draw upon our attention that is the infinite myriad of events unfolding in our world at once. 

In a way, to contemplate on this deeply is to inoculate oneself, at least to a degree, against one of the great fears of our time, that of missing out. As there is always this moment, and a sea of magnificence just a glimpse away, indeterminately just within reach. And as with so many things, not so easily found.