It's Vast, Ye Maties

Every morning I make it a point to go outside and look up. Some mornings it's dark, and I can enjoy the broad vista of the constellations. I've never been able to work out much beyond the Dippers and Orion's Belt, but I appreciate them nonetheless. Most mornings I'm admiring a cloud-streaked sky, blue or grey. Watching the clouds in their lazy journey over the earth or the stars in their courses reminds me of the vastness of the universe.

And this is blog-worthy...why? (You ask.)

I believe it's all about perspective. Every day I go to work and get sucked into the minor miseries and contrived catastrophes that define my life in that building. It's easy to get caught up and stressed out. To forget about the bigness of the universe, and how my life and the things that happen at work are just a minuscule part of it. Sometimes when I'm in a meeting and starting to get frustrated, I look out the window and think, "Yep, it's still there, a whole world full of billions of people who don't give a shit on shingle about what happens in this room." It's very comforting. It puts my work in its place. Of course, the work is important to me, it needs to be done and done well, but it does not define me as a person. Nothing I'm doing there will change the course of the universe. It is a job that needs to be done. Nothing more, nothing less. And when I am no longer roaming its corridors, there will be other employees to carry on.

Some might find this observation depressing. Not me. I find it liberating. When I walk out the door at the end of a long day and look up at the sky, I know it's okay to let go. And go home to the things that matter most to me.

That's what it's all about.