I like to experience the universe as one harmonious whole. Every cell has life. Matter, too, has life; it is energy solidified. The tree outside is life… The whole of nature is life… The basic laws of the universe are simple, but because our senses are limited, we can’t grasp them. There is a pattern in creation. – Albert Einstein
Experiencing the Symphony of our Living Universe
Look around and you may have noticed that everything in our Universe is involved in some form of organized creative activity–moving, evolving and changing all the time. It’s a Cosmic Dance that’s been going on since the Big Bang, when energy became matter, and clouds of interstellar gas first gave birth to galaxies of stars.
Billions of years ago (within the arms of our galaxy) a super nova exploded–seeding this region with the basic elements that formed our solar system. This beautiful planet we inhabit began as a molten rock circling our star, the land slowly cooling and hardening, allowing rain to fall, water to gather and flow, forming oceans, lakes, rivers and streams.
Life soon arose in the oceans. Small cells became amoebas, then plants, fish, insects, trees, animals. Conscious sentient beings walking, flying and swimming, mating and fighting, aware and alive.
That is how we got here, that is who we are. Children of the Universe, Living expressions of the Cosmic Dance of Creation.
The Creative Patterns of Life
You have probably noticed that there are patterns everywhere that repeat. The spherical shape of the sun, earth and moon. The swirling golden ratio pattern of hurricanes, snail shells and galaxies.
There are also common creative processes that happen all around (and within) us. Every life form travels a similar path, beginning as sperm and egg—cells multiplying and self-organizing, forming our heart, legs, lungs, eyes, ears, muscles, brains and bones.
In a very real way, we are each active participants, localized expressions of universal creativity.
Who Built You?
Think about it, who built your body (guided by the DNA of your parents), grew every inch of it, self-constructed your physical form, from scratch?
You did!
And you’ve maintained the growth and existence of your physical form for decades now, taking in new materials from the world every single day, transforming water, protein, calcium, oxygen, and other materials to maintain the complex living structure of your body.
As Alan Watts and Eckhart Tolle have pointed out, ‘you’ are not just a person, you are a conscious expression of the Earth, of the stars, of Nature’s evolution and all of cosmic history. We are shape-shifters, temporary arisings of awareness and form, unique waves of life in the Cosmic ocean.
Universal Symphony
Every living being is a creative self-constructing system, an expression of the interdependent web of Life on earth, a part of the harmonious symphony that’s being sung by our Universe.
Like all of Nature’s systems, we are built up from (and embedded within) complex networks of systems. Our atoms form molecules, which form cells that work together to form the body’s systems and our individual expression as a human being.
We are also a part of family systems, social systems, communities embedded in cities and ecosystems, forming planetary systems, solar systems, spinning in the arms of a galactic system. All constantly transforming and interdependently connected, dissolving apart and reforming, evolving and creating new forms.
This is happening everywhere on our planet, within (and all around) each of us, the Universe alive and dancing on this beautiful gem of a world, as Nature, as mountains, rivers, birds, people, dolphins, flowers and trees.
As sentient beings we are capable of experiencing the beauty and miracle of life here. Children growing, learning and playing together, insects buzzing in fields of flowers, musicians jamming, lovers loving, monks chanting…
Participating in the Dance of Life
Our minds and hearts teaming up together, creating families and cultures, constructing cities and technologies, giving birth to new ideas, art, science, spiritual insights, music and poetry…
Until the day we die, when it ends for each of us–as a temporary localized expression of Universal Creativity and Awareness–when our atoms start to drop back, returning to the very Earth that had brought us into being.
Until then we have a chance to participate in the Dance, to add a verse or two to the Cosmic chorus. To be grateful, loving and happy. To experience a lifetime here, as one of countless points of creative awareness and expression.
This is who we are, a Universe in motion.
