Emerson said, "As the air I breathe is drawn from the great repositories of nature, as the light on my book is yielded by a star of a hundred million miles distant, as the poise of my body depends on the equilibrium of centrifugal and centripetal forces, so the hours should be instructed by the ages and the ages explained by the hours."
There is a small and a big in every part of our universe and they are intrinsically and inseparably linked. One cannot exist without the other. And if this wisdom is to be used then the microcosm should be instructed by the macrocosm and the macrocosm explained by the microcosm.
So how can we do that? How can we use this wisdom so as to balance our lives and align them with this apparent law that relates the small to the big? The balance is found as we try to grasp infinity while we realize that this now moment is where we always are. We can use our experience as a guide while realizing that right now is what we have and that we are always at the point of choice.
We can have an overwhelming since of gratitude for the literally countless number of variables that had to fall just right over the eons the of universal experience in order for me to be here to write this and you to be here to read it. Meanwhile in this very moment, there are literally a countless number of little parts within our bodies; each part doing exactly what it was meant to do, exactly the way it was meant to do it without our even thinking about it. We can be grateful for all of this and let that gratitude be our primary attitude no matter if the outer circumstances of our lives look the way we think they ought to look or not. Even what we perceive as a negative experience is still after all an experience and it did not have to be that way.
Think of this: You are only able to stand because the Earth is moving. Sure, we'd have lots of problems if the world stopped turning. And since our balance and equilibrium are based on the rotation of the Earth, the first problem we'd have would be standing up!
There are so many things we can be grateful for! Try making a list of them. At Thanksgiving I enjoy making a list of 101 things that I am grateful for in my life at that moment. I definitely recommend this exercise to everyone and you can do it right now rather than waiting until the next Thanksgiving.
Bottom line: Gratitude is the way! And, each and every moment of our experience comes equipped with an incredible number of points of gratitude, even if it's the moment itself that we are being grateful for.
And finally, here's to the sage of Concord, Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson, for reminding us just how small and how big we truly are!
