“It’s strange to be here. The mystery never leaves you alone.”
—John O’Donohue
Spirituality is defined as “the quality of being concerned with the human spirit as opposed to physical or material things.” Thank you, Oxford, we forgive you. That definition no longer works for millions of souls who have ceased to separate the two, and who in fact find a lot of meaning from connecting with the physical, natural world to experience the spiritual. The physical world around us, as complex as it is, is beautiful and inspiring and profound.
These five mind-bending facts about the natural world are the tiniest snapshot of consciousness and the strange, sweet miracle of being alive.
- There are as many molecules in just 10 drops of water as there are stars in our observable universe.
Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2012/09/17/161096233/which-is-greater-the-number-of-sand-grains-on-earth-or-stars-in-the-sky - Whales and dolphins have complex relationships and call each other by name.
Source: https://www.treehugger.com/animals/whales-and-dolphins-have-complex-relationships-and-talk-each-other.html - All matter, including the human body, contains mostly empty space. “If we lost all the dead space inside our atoms, we would each be able to fit into a particle of lead dust, and the entire human race would fit into the volume of a sugar cube.”
Source: https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/the-particle-physics-of-you - Caterpillars turn into soup before they turn into butterflies.
Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/caterpillar-butterfly-metamorphosis-explainer/ - If you unraveled all the DNA in your body, it would span 10 billion miles. That is the equivalent of traveling to the sun and back again 61 times!
Source: https://www.kqed.org/quest/1219/a-long-and-winding-dna
Thoughts to consider:
- What knowledge of the physical world brings you to awe and wonder?
- How might you share this knowledge to help or inspire others?
—Jessica Lien, Prairiewoods development coordinator