Cosmic Connection

Far out on a country hill I place my blanket on the grass and lie flat.

Above my head to the north is steady Polaris.

Off my left arm the gas giant Jupiter rises silently. Off my right, Mercury Is settling into the deep blue twilight.

As velvet black of true darkness comes, the majestic backbone of night appears – the Milky Way.

Its angle from my right foot across to my left shoulder orients me, and I tilt my head to the right to become upright in my home galaxy.

Peering into the dense star cloud of Sagittarius, where the galactic center hides, I begin to feel my citizenship in the Universe.

Reaching out, I run fingertips along the edges of the billion-star band of light.

The Carbon, Nitrogen and Oxygen atoms that are me resonate with their birthplaces, in the cores of those stellar furnaces.

And the connection is made, transcendence complete.

About Harvey H. Madison

Harvey Madison is a lifetime resident of West Texas, and was raised in the Southern Baptist Church. He has a B.A. in Psychology, and a Master of education. While earning his living as a photographer and photography educator, Madison is an activist in the areas of civil liberties and education. In 1989 he started the Center for Critical Thinking. He has served on the Texas state board of Common Cause, and has been on the chapter board of the American Civil Liberties Union, serving as its president for fourteen years. He attends and is past president of the Lubbock Unitarian Church. He loves everything about the sky, and flies his own plane, chases storms, uses an astronomical telescope, and has skydived.

Comments

Cosmic Connection — 1 Comment

  1. Wow…I’ve done that before, that is, used the Milky Way to orient myself with the galaxy and I know exactly what you are talking about. I wish I could put it into words so well–when I try to tell people about it I mainly just get blank stares.

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