#2 Sunshine - The Journey

A Garden of Life reflection

Sunshine

have you ever felt the warmth of sunshine on your back?

Did it feel good?

Did it feel like being hugged in a warm embrace from life itself?

Mmmm!

Did you enjoy that moment of joy

Did you take it for granted?

Or did you really appreciate that kiss of life?

Wait, the light and warmth of the sun is life

Sunshine is life, without it we would not have a life.

Because without this electromagnetic energy there would be no light or warmth or LIFE as we know it.

Do we really appreciate the enormity of feeling the warmth of sunshine?

Or the profound nature of that kiss of life?

Every electromagnetic spectral hug you feel has travelled 93 million miles in just over 8 minutes

Awesome! That’s like us traveling around the earth over 1800 times in 8 minutes.

But wait that wasn’t all that beautiful warm energy went through to reach you and hug you.

Before that epic skip to earth.

It had to travel to the edge of our solar system and bounce off the fabric of interstellar space.

Way to go! Amazing!

But wait, that’s still not all. That energy needed to travel through the sun itself.

And that took … a while, what do you reckon?

Well it took around 170,000 years to reach the sun’s surface where it had enough speed to break free from the sun’s gravity.

And become the emitted charged particles that we experience as sunshine.

That’s like someone from the middle paleolithic age walking through the millennia to reach the 21^st century. All in order to break free from stone age living and blast off into space. For even more travelling in order to return and give you a hug.

Incredible!

And way before that, before that energy could find its way to the surface it had to endure a chain rection from nuclear fusion. That particle of sunshine was literally birthed in the density of the sun’s core where hydrogen atoms collided with such force that they melted into helium!

Our earth, including its atmosphere, effectively lives in the sun’s atmosphere.

So we too effectively live in the atmosphere of the sun

We live in the warm embrace of sunlight. 

Where the sun is continually blowing us kisses of life and hugging us with its warmth.

How wonderful that we live in a place where every 1.5 millionth of a second the sun releases more energy than all humans consume in a year.

It’s worth pausing for a moment to …

… acknowledge that our life and that of our planet is supported by a truly epic journey.

… appreciate how your body adapts daily to sunshine.

… celebrate opportunities to allow yourself to thrive in such a beautiful place within such an abundant space.

Happy worthday!