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The most profound experience that shook my world view took place in a pub in Ottawa...
A good friend and I were drinking coffee after coffee and talking long into the night as we frequently did. We got onto the topic of space and how space travel is actually accomplished (he was an amateur astronomer when he was a kid).
As we talk more and delved into how planets react to each other and so on... my mind suddenly went... SNAP!
For the first time ever I had the overwhelming realization of just how small and insignificant I was (let alone our planet or solar system) in the grand scheme of things. The words I am using to desicribe this cannot grasp the moment and the feelings I went through at the time.
It did two things. It gave me a sense of insignificance in the face if the vast, vertiginous expanse of the universe but it also did the opposite. It made me realize that life is a wonder to be enjoyed and savoured. That petty things that bother me from day to day are just that... petty. I am small they are smaller. I'm not sure if that makes sense to others but sure makes sense to me.
I lose sight of this from time to time but when every I remember that moment I take comfort.
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