My Own Insignificance

Lately I have been on a frustrating quest to find my passion and my purpose in life. This lofty but personal question is something I've found very difficult to answer. I want to know where to put my energy and focus so that I can pursue whatever it is I love to do. Lists full of goals, dreams, weaknesses and interests have brought me no closer to an answer. Often the words of wisdom will ring through my head, "you are not alone, many people before you have gone through the same thing." So where is the manual? Where is the guide that will alleviate this frustration? But I suppose with such a personal inquiry the journey must also be equally as unique.

However, I have the ability to take a step back from my first world problems and examine things from a new perspective. Videos like this one from Neil deGrasse Tyson fascinate me. But, I look at things a bit differently from this brilliant man. While he feels bigger and empowered to know that we are made up of this universe, I enjoy the idea of my insignificance. I like knowing that the problems I am having today or will have in the future are so meaningless when considering the vastness and extent of everything. Not to say our human existence lacks value, but in the grand scheme it is simply a grain of sand amongst all the world's beaches. We give our lives such great importance because its all we know, have known and will ever know. But in terms of the universe humans are but the blink of an eye.

I love to stare into the sky and look at the stars. Think of what has taken place a billion years before and what will come over the next billion years. To even try to comprehend all that is difficult. But when I put myself into that perspective, my life of about a century seems so beautifully unimportant. And based on such an idea I say to myself, if my life is truly insignificant what should I do with my short allowance of time. Often the best answers are: see the small bit of the universe I can reach and help those around me to enjoy their short existence. We live in a beautiful place and it would be a shame to allow relatively new, manmade confines of society prevent me from seeing it with the company I wish to share it.