This morning, my topic for you goes beyond the usual confines of academic religion, and those ethical and justice themes that liberal religious outlooks are so well known for presenting. Today’s theme is a mythopoetic one- it’s about symbols and syncronicites and the archetypal connections between the yearly cycle of the Sun, the solstice, and the changes in one’s life; the revolutions of the heart, the seasons of the soul.
The inescapable importance of the warmth and light of the Sun on earthly life cannot be disputed. We know that the Sun and sunshine affects all life cycles and the patterns of growth in all living things. I propose, through the connections and corelatons of myth and metaphor, that the Sun has other influences on us- on our psyches, our attitudes, our sense of self and soul in the context of wholeness and life.
The light, heat, vitality and energy we unselfishly and indifferently receive from the Sun have been known to affect people’s moods and temperaments. We have all heard of situations and conditions wherein the amount of sunshine is involved a person receives changes or alters their mood and attitude towards daily life. In warm climates or prolonged humidity, the extra sun of the summer can make them testy, aggressive and “hot under the collar.
Where I came from in New England it was the opposite. The lack of sun was always blamed, along with the local weatherman predictions, for people being grumpy, pessimistic, and impatient for the spring thaw and desire to feel the summer’s warmth.
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In psychological theory and literature, there seems to be a strong connection between people’s moods and the amount of sunshine they receive- there is even a recognized mental or emotional illness called SAD (Seasonal Adjusted Disorder) where a person has to have artificial sunlight installed in their home to cure certain forms of depression. That certainly gives validity to the claim that the Sun does certainly affect us on many levels!
The Sun corresponds poetically to what Emerson called the Soul of the Whole. Its effect on our existence are a sum total, for it directly and unmistakably influences all of life. Much earlier in human culture, during the Renaissance, people were much more in touch or in tune with the cycles of the Sun, and how it affected their city and rural life. The philosopher and alchemist Marsillo Ficino, writing in his metaphysical treatise on the planets, put it this way:
[Our sun, besides maintaining the particular power of itself
promotes the common power of life all through us, but especially
through the heart, the source of intimate fire for the soul. Similarly, the World Soul flourishes through the Sun, unfolding and shining, giving us the common power of life.

In later contemporary language, we have the observations of Carl Jung and Thomas Moore, a Jungian trained theologian whose book, Care Of The Soul and other works have become popular. Carl Jung spoke of this tendency and recommends that we maintain our connection to the Sun and the Soul. He gave this statement for our consideration. He said that:
The concept of Sol or the Sun [has much] to do with the growth
of modern consciousness- especially as we derive and connect the observations of the natural world with our inner being.”

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In his first book, The Planets Within, Thomas Moore makes this observation and conclusion:
There is a solar consciousness, an awareness of the spiritual value in material things, bringing these things to life, animating them … giving them soul.”

This ability of the Sun to influence us can be taken one step further. As our emotional patterns and possibilities are very much a part of each of us, so too, it could be said that the Sun adds to the vitality and to the clarity of our identities; that the Sun affects the human soul or psyche as well. Moore points out that we should read these mythic and astrological symbols as an internal landscape, not as hard science. He favors the view that the symbolic qualities of the planets, the Sun and the Moon, and the stars of the heavens, create for us distinct patterns for discernment- they create patterns not only in the night sky, but also in our psyches- [a sky-chart within. The planets in this sky within, somehow correspond with the deeply felt movements and inclinations of the soul.] In the mythopoetic language of astrology and mythology, these movements and the patterns they create, can be seen as celestial clues to our internal workings, and their movements might be barely perceptible at first, but within time can be cumulative and transformative.
We will soon celebrate the summer solstice- the day in astronomy where the sun shines for the longest time, creating the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. The opposite occurs on or about December 21, some six months away. That is the time of the winter solstice, when we experience the least amount of sunshine, or what we call the shortest day of the year. Just to round out this quick refresher in Astronomy 101, the days in March and
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September when there is equal or a balanced amount of day and night are called the vernal and autumnal equinoxes.
From a mythical viewpoint, one that can connect a deep sense of light to the energy within us, the experience of the light and warmth of the Sun gives our souls a clue for their best expression. The length of daylight corresponds to the time we are urged or encouraged to go or be outdoors in the light, and the sun also signals when it is best for our psyches or souls to seek the darkness for contemplation and rest.
The longest time period for light and outward energies occurs during June-July and the Shortest time occurs between December and January. In the time of increasing light, the soil and the soul warms to invite growth, expansion and the planting of seeds. Fertile possibilities now can take root, and grow in the earth and in our minds and hearts. In this time of the expansion of light and heat, plants grow to the peak of their height and ripeness, and the creative energies of nature dominate landscape and life. As this time period applies to humans, what seems to happen more in June or July than any other time of the year?
Hmm… let’s see… traditionally there are more weddings during this time period than any other… more children are conceived …. more people graduate, ripen, mature or move out and away,, further up and into the world…. are there any others you can name or add?
Conversely, what could be said about the shortest days? They correspond to an ingathering, a more restful, contemplative and focused energy- a time for reading, introspection, meditation, evaluation and for welcoming more warmth and quiet into our lives.
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I suspect that is one of the psychic reasons that the crass, commercial crunch of Christmas is so hard to endure… It goes against the natural rhythms of sun, soul, and life! But since it is an artificial holiday anyway, I am all for simplification. Christmas is more accurately celebrated on January 6th or if celebrating Jesus, more likely that he was born in early February or March- but that’s another sermon!
The reason for bringing your attention to these cycles and seasons of the Sun, and their potential effects on us, is my concern for the health and well being of each of you as a spiritual and soulful person. In the fields of transpersonal psychology and theology where I make my academic home, it is affirmed and supported that when a person, or a culture, or a nation loses its sense of natural rhythms, cycles and seasons, it endangers their soul; it puts at risk our needed attunement to nature as sacred, which results in a loss of regard for our needs to nurture and reflect, express and create along with these natural cycles.
In astrological and mythological symbolism, the sun has come to represent the core, true individuality of a person, as opposed to the learned personality these cultural ideas and attitudes that comprise social conduct, behaviors, perceptions, and outlooks. The Sun is the signature self; how we most naturally relate to what is sacred and holy in ourselves, in others, and in nature; The Sun reveals how we best express the gifts and graces, talents, desires, and skills of this life.

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It is postulated by soul-centered therapists and clergy that when a person or a culture forgets about the sun and the seasons, they lose contact with the essentials of life- the more heart-centered empathetic and nurturing ways that make relationships more enjoyable and a gratitude for life and love more sustainable.
A couple of provocative, maybe loaded questions:
Do you feel that our society has lost touch with these seasons and reasons? How can we best recover our souls?
Maybe it is that need to recognize and affirm natural ways and cycles of revealed truth that is behind our church membership’s interest in recapturing many of the Native American celebrations, or the Wiccan and Celtic wisdom traditions, that clearly celebrate the seasons with reverence and delight???
Going a little deeper, we can see in the mythical literature a need to look to the Sun and the seasons as ways to define our inner being. In The Upanishads, the ancient sacred texts of Hinduism, we are given a reply to the question the Brahman asks of Ajuna, one of the gods of light and life:
“[Who are you? ... I am a season, and the child of the seasons. I am sprung from the womb of infinite space, the seed of the husband and the wife, I am the light of the year, the Self of all that is; and whatever you are, I am also. ... I am but a phase of the universal life, and a child of the manifest cycles... I am a spark of the Divine, evolved through the cycle of the twelve stages, and by my means, is all growth accomplished.]”

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Moving to the consideration of the solstice as the longest and shortest days, we are given the contrasting image and the complementary rotations or resonance that represents the revolving seasons of the soul. One definition of the cycles of the year and the seasons is this; A year, in the life of day and night, is the way the soul moves, manifests and matures itself.
Some of the physical phenomena that can have mythopoetic and metaphysical correlation’s are these: The solstice points are the only time in the whole year that the Sun stays stationary or is seen as standing still. This station can be seen as a time of concentrated self or soul energy that reinforces what you know about yourself and can affirm the next steps in your path to more complete selfhood. Second, the two solstice points act as complementary and supplementary mirrors of beginnings and endings. The solstice points act as the mirror that has two faces- one summer one is concave- a view that elongates the search for authenticity and true definitions, and the winter one has a convex face that widens and deepens introspection, assessment, discipline and inner peace. These points at the beginning of the summer and the winter act as the two faces in the mirror of our being. They complement one another by showing our psyches our inner make-up- the inner impulse that portrays how we can be attracted to the new search, and they place before us the completion of an important life’s task– These two points give us a special time for expressing and then for integrating what you know about yourself.
Lastly, the solstice points are an opportune and gracious time for the recapturing and the reconnecting of your personal and relational missing links- those parts of you that you had previously let go or places in your life where you have felt lacking or that something is missing.
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The solstice time period offers us the spiritual opportunity that gives us time and energy to reclaim and reconnect them. From these phenomena, we gain insights into our soul life. From these celestial cycles, we find a path to our inner work, our inner release.
As the seasons transpire, circling the cosmos in their divinely ordered rounds, we who value renewal and the potentials for self and soul, are urged to align and attune ourselves to these cycles, and adjust ourselves to accepting that we are creatures who need to heed the rhythm and flow of energy and life.
A parting thought, from one of my recent research projects about connections and correlation’s between grace and time:
“[We live in a soul-centered universe, and all beings share in the blessed perpetual motion of the world within and the world without. At the very center and circumference of life is the Anima Mundi, the World Soul represented symbolically by the Sun. This world soul beckons us to heed the rhythms of existence, drawing us into the ever-flowing constant relationship to all that is and all that could be. ...
These cycles of time and awareness are ours to comprehend; to translate and apply to the complex world of human understanding and behavior.
By following the mythic path of The Sun that will reveal out inner and outer connections to a more seasonal, sensual and soulful life, we can find more of the answers to how our restless, wandering souls can search and find our true selves.]”

Happy Solstice…
and may the blessings of the long time Sun be with you!

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Glory Be to God for dappled things- For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls;
flinch’s wings; Landscape plotted and pierced- fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things couter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle,freckled, (who knows how?)
With swift; slow; sweet; sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise Him!
Gerald Manly Hopkins

Easter is not a time to dwell on dusty, musty tombs of tradition and feeling… it is to be celebrated as a day that fans the flames of hope that rise out of the tombs of any despair- Easter is our day of days that proclaims unconditionally the glory and majesty of life-it proclaims that the Spirit of Life is eternal, and that She lives in us, among us and is forever a gracious Yes! Happy Easter!

Selected Reading: Easter Morning by Wallace Robbins (adapted)
In the Easter story according to St. John’s Gospel, at dawn, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb alone. She was reluctantly included among the people who surrounded Jesus or who were a part of his inner circle of believers. Yet, she was first; and it was to her, and not to the apostles, that Jesus first appeared.
Those who watched the crucifixion had hoped that Jesus would have demonstrated some divine power or holy wrath… But when he did not, some were disappointed… Others were relieved…. Mary Magdalene never asked for anything from Jesus; She just wanted only to give her thanks to a man- a man who lay dead either victorious or defeated- but a man when he was alive blessed her and released her from her enemies and exploiters.
Jesus might have been the only man she ever met who did not want something from her- the only one who saw into her heart, and then demonstrated to her that he believed in her goodness, and that she wasn’t beyond redemption or undeserving of his compassion. His ability to show mercy gave her the strength to believe that God could not be denied or wrestled out of existence by religious piety, moral indifference, or public apathy. Because of what he did while he was alive, she was simply grateful. Her darkness did not frighten him, and his dark death did not discourage her faith.
Until each of us is willing to face the tomb of our own deadly beliefs, the emptiness of limiting attitudes and belittling opinions, be willing to suspend our doubts to arrive with hope, and then acting courageous and compassionate toward others, acting in the unselfish power of love can do or achieve, only then will we ever begin to know how Mary felt on that first Easter morning….

From the writings of Miester Eckhart and the Creation Mystics

The day of my spiritual awakening, was the day when I saw God in all things, and all things in God….

When your personal Easter comes, know that I will be all around you, and that I shall move through and through you… and Then I will steal your body, and give it to your love… (alternative is: I will heal your body…)

When are we like God? I will tell you…
In so far as we are compassionate,and practice it steadfastly
In so far as we are just, and decide to live in accord with it
In so far as we are loving, and offer it freely

Then do we resemble the Creator/Creatrix who practices these things ceaselessly in us and for us…

What is the human soul? It is god with God.
This is why God says to the soul:
I am the God of gods, but you are the goddess of all creatures.
Stand by all the people ….
who bear my likeness for I am your soul….

How does God come to us?
Like dew on the flowers…
Like the song of birds!
Yes, God gives us beauty through all the creatures,
gives us God wholly to me! \
This is why I bless God in my heart without ceasing, and give thanks for every living thing…. And this is why God has given us a mouth- to offer praises, in common with all the creatures, with all that we do, and at all times….

I see humanity as one vast plant, needing for its highest fulfillment only love, the natural blessings of the great outdoors, and intelligent crossing and selection.

In the span of my own lifetime, I have observed such wonderous progress in plant evolution that I look forward optimisitcally to a healthy,happy world as soon as its children are taught the principles of simple and rational living.
We must return to nature, and nature’s god.
Luther Burbank

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“So for yourselves, seek righteousness, reap then the fruit of steadfast love, break up your fallow ground- for now is the time to seek the Lord, that he might come and rain salvation upon you.” Hosea 12
A Parable Retold
adapted from Matthew Fox’s Creation Spirituality
Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of Earth, pages 143-45

“In the Gospel of Luke we read the parable of a rich man & a poor man named Lazurus. I propose the following updated version: There was a rich nation whose people used to dress in whatever clothes they wanted every day, and buy whatever cars they wanted which emitted untold amounts of carbon dioxide.
These people ate beef at fast food restaurants whenever they wanted; they created a whole new industry around beef eating by tearing down rain forests where the poor lived, even though it was explained to them how their children depend on these very rain forests so far away for their clean air and their health.
Now at the rich country’s border there lay many poor countries to the south; they were called “The Third World.”
They were covered with the sores of poverty, unemployment, lack of food and medical care, and owed many debts to the rich nation. Much of their land and forests had been stripped bare by the rich nation’s oil and lumber, fruit and meat industries, who supported dictators and their military guards. The “sores” of the “Third World” included 5 hundred million persons starving; 1 billion persons living in abject poverty; 1 billion, 5 hundred thousand persons with no access to basic health care; 1/2 a billion, 5 hundred million with no work and a per capita income of $150 dollars a year; 814 billion illiterate persons; 2 billion people with no dependable water; and no topsoil.
These “sores” were present daily for the rich nations to behold, but they turned their backs and pretended that such suffering was not “newsworthy.” Instead, they built a culture of denial and left the dogs to lick the wounds of the poor.
For years the “Third World” longed to fill itself with the scraps that fell from the rich nation’s table. But most of the assistance that the “Third World” received from the “First World” was in the form of military weapons and money to support the dictators and their armies because those armies were needed to keep the poor people from rebelling. The rich nation would train the poor armies in methods of effective torture. The rich nations then could continue to receive the fruit, the coffee, the sugar, and the cocoa and eventually all the cocaine and the other drugs that fed the rich nation’s insatiable needs.
And then, the poor nations died, and were carried by the angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich nation also died and was buried and sent to fires of Hades. In its torment in Hades, the rich nation looked up and saw Abraham a long way off, with the “Third World” beginning to rise from the dead straight out of Abraham’s bosom. So it cried out, “Father Abraham, pity us and send the “Third World” to dip the tip of its finger in water and cool our tongue, for we are in agony in these flames.”
” My child,” said Father Abraham, “remember that during your life good things came your way, whereas you dealt the bad things to the “Third World. Therefore there is a great chasm that lies between us, and it is a gulf that is fixed to stop anyone who tries to cross over it.”
So the First World begged that Abraham send the Third World to the other rich nations of First World and give them a warning so that they do not wind up here in eternal torment.
“They have had Moses, & the prophets, let them listen to them!” Then Abraham said to the rich nation, “If they will not listen to Moses, or to the prophets or to Jesus, they would not be convinced even if someone would rise and return from the dead.”

Good afternoon… Today it is my privilege to present some thoughts on the Lenten season from a dissenting Christian and ecumenical perspective known as Creation Spirituality.
Creation Spirituality is a parallel path to the more commonly held Fall/Redemption Theology of Christianity. It also dates itself to Biblical origins and there are Biblical passages that support its teachings, so it is nothing new, just an alternative approach to our Western spiritual heritage that looks at the nature of humanity and the creation more inclusively and optimistically.
There are four paths or directions in which the Spirit moves in us and directs our attention towards God, humanity, community, and the allness of the creation. The first is the Via Positiva- often seen as the season of an expanded Advent. This first path is a profound Yes to life. It is the way of the Mystic and focuses on the affirmation of our Original Blessings, rather than becoming preoccupied by our Original Sins…..
The second path is the Via Negativa- which understood as the season of Lent- It can be understood as the way of the Prophet who calls us to social judgment and to a heartfelt, self-empting kenosis; to a life of simplicity and sincerity, that question our motives, and reflects on our ethics and authenticity before God.
The Third and fourth paths are the Via Creativa- which is Pentecost- The way of the Artist and the fourth is the Via Transformativa- which is the way of the Healer or the time and energy needed for the transformation for the community.

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As this is Holy week, and the culmination of the season of Lent begins with Maundy or Holy Thursday tomorrow, I will offer a reflection on our faith and its demands through the eyes of a prophet… While most of the traditional focus for the Lenten season seems to remind us and recommend us towards cultivating our interiority- to understand the need for meditative practices
and to affirm the value the role of prayer in our lives as Rev. Obercresser So avidly and joyfully recommended to us.
There is, however, a warning that any excessive pietism can lead us to passive self absorption so that we can easily forget that to have a complete picture of Jesus and a fuller more dynamic sense of faith is to practice “noisy contemplation”- that prayer when understood is also embodied- prayer leads us to act justly. From this perspective, the prophet who calls us to be faithful and just, earnest and righteous, calls us to fulfill ourselves, and to follow Jesus more completely during this Holy Week and each week of our lives. We are called to follow him in gratitude and with inspiration, to follow him and accompany him through scorn and tribulations, and then to follow him in triumph and transcendence.
You see, we have another Lenten lesson to remember here- Jesus was not crucified because he was too mystical, prayerful, or metaphysical, it was because he was too prophetic- his words, and actions were seen as a threat to the status quo….
So the season of Lent calls us into the question of how best can we work together to realize the Kingdom or Queendom of God as being in us and among us.
There is a constant need in all of us to experience God’s presence more fully for ourselves. As Rev. Harp so cogently put it, regrettably, we know best the absence of God and not the presence…

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As Dr. Kirchner put it, our faith story finds itself inviting us into the unexpected encounter with the Holy- to open ourselves to living out our faith by acting in virtuous, demanding, and exhalting ways.
If we are to set out to benefit from our faith, as we hold to its confessions and convictions, then we have to engage the essential task of the mature devotional life- to move away from the polite but often passive learning about God, and to make ourselves more ready and willing to act prophetically- To know who and what God is, and how those truths manifest and operate in your life.
So the goal of the Lenten season, and the path of Via Negativa, is cultivate the fallow ground of our hearts, remove the tares from our hearts, and to become the ready and ripe wheat & be the good seed that bears witness, bears fruit in our lives.
Miester Eckhart, German mystic of the high Middle ages, and probably the best spokesperson for Creation Spirituality since Jesus, puts it this way:
The seed of God grows into to God….Let yourself go, let God be God be God in you…
What is this ” Letting Go?” It means that we willingly engage in the Lenten spiritual and ethical disciplines that are unselfish and focussed on service to humanity and the earth, such as adopting a standard of living that advocates for a voluntary simplicity…. That when we limit our cravings and release ourselves from promoting a gluttonous, unrealistic standard of living so that others in this same County, in this city, might have access to decent housing, to basic dignity, and receive the necessities for their families. As Meister Eckhart puts it, “Faith is the place in our hearts where the clinging to the material things of our lives ends, and where our true grasp of God begins.”
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In this way, Lent is the season where letting go brings evidence of the grace that truly sustains us. As Rev. Leftkow reminded us, we gain a true holy and ethical perspective when we live out a Christ-like compassion in service to others. For it is true that through selfless service, the Holy often can be faithfully found. What the path of the Via Negativa during Lent teaches us, and challenges us to understand, is that we do not come to this ripeness of the soul- this Beatitude or Blessing way – without first dying to the stale, the trite, the safe, and the secure ways of life and in our religious life.

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The earth has great powers of resilience, but she is also fragile. …At the same time, great forces of love and healing are growing in the world. We have emerging echnologies that, if we would actually use them on a larger scale, would allow us to live lightly upon the earth… We have the knowledge and the wisdom, if we choose to apply them, about how to provide for human needs in a way that respects and enhances the balance of life. And we have an ever-increasing global community of people committed to balanced ways of living.
In this crucial time, we are called to be healers-of the earth, of the human community, of each other. And when we speak of healing the earth, in reality, is that we need to heal the human relationship with the earth. And this healing begins with respectful listening…
Starhawk The Earth Path

Hymn to Matter

Blessed be you, harsh matter, barren soil, stubborn rock: you who only yield to violence;
YOU WHO FORCE US TO WORK IF WE WOULD EAT

Blessed are you, perilous matter, violent seas, untamable passions;
YOU WHO, UNLESS WE BIND YOU, WILL DEVOUR US

Blessed be you, mighty matter, the irresistible march of evolution, reality being ever reborn;
BLESSED BE YOU, BY THE CONSTANT SHATTERING OF OUR MENTAL CATEGORIES, FORCE US TO GO EVER FURTHER AND FURTHER INTO OUR PURSUIT OF THE TRUTH.

Blessed be you, universal matter, unmeasurable time, boundless ether, triple abyss of stars, and atoms and generations;
YOU WHO, BY OVERFLOWING AND DISSOLVING OUR NARROW STANDARDS OF MEASUREMENT, REVEAL TO US THE DIMENSIONS OF GOD. Teilhard De Chardin
From the UU Hymnal #549

To live content with small means, To seek elegance rather than luxury,
And refinement rather than fashion, To be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich
To study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly,
To listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with an open heart…
To bear all things cheerfully, do bravely, await occasions,
hurry never-
In a word, to let the spiritual unbidden and unconscious, grow up
through the common. This is my symphony
William Ellery Channing

We can never have enough of nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor, vast and titanic features, the sea coast with its wrecks, the wilderness with its living and decaying trees, the thundercloud and the rain that lasts for weeks… We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander.
Henry David Thoreau

Prayer of Thanks

Great and eternal Mystery of Life, creator of all things, I give thanks for the beauty put into every single one of Your creations…

I am grateful that you did not fail in making every stone, plant, creature and human a part of the whole, part of the Sacred Hoop…

I am grateful that You have allowed me to see the strength and beauty of all My relations… Ah Ho…

My humble request is that all the Children of earth will learn to see the same perfection in themselves

May none of Your human children doubt or question that all creation may be seen as the extensions of Your perfect love…

Native American

A human being is a part of the whole, called by us, “universe,” a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest- a kind of optical delusion of our consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to having affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Albert Einstein

Nature is always available, easily accessible, and one of the best ways to seek inner healing… Whenever you feel stressed, confused, or down- go outside, and ask nature to give you an answer to your problems. Then listen, listen humbly and respectfully, to the water, the birds, the wind, the animals, … And after a while, you will notice how much better you can feel when nature answers you…
Most of the time, we are forced to listen to the noise of society; horns, engines, sirens and such. We do not even realize how much these sounds can affect us in a negative way. Which sounds bring you peace, and which sounds seem to create anxiety? When your soul needs exercise, nature is the best gym. …
If you can see nature through your window, any situation will be less stressful, and you will cope better. Stay in touch with Mother Nature. Spend time outside in the sunshine, and have faith that, no matter what your circumstances, you will be a survivor.
Attributed to Wendell Berry

Two astronauts, reflecting on their view of earth…

From the Moon, Earth is so small, so fragile, and such a precious spot in an expanding universe, yet, out the window, you are able to block it out with your thumb… Then you realize looking down at the blue-green thing, that it contains everything that ever has made any meaning to you- all the history, music, art, … All the death and life , birth and love, tears, joys, all of it, right here, out this window smaller than my thumb… And you realize from that perspective, that you are changed forever…
During space flight, the psyche of every astronaut is reshaped. Having seen the stars, our planet, our vision turns softer, more full of compassion for all of life. You begin to look at every living thing with greater respect, and you begin to be more kind and patient with the people around you…
USA astronaut Rusty Scwickert and Soviet cosmonaut Boris Volvnov

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