Three Billion Heartbeats

The clock is ticking…

 

We don’t know how the universe began, or if it’s the only universe.”

“We don’t know the ultimate, complete laws of physics.”

“We don’t know how life began, or how consciousness arose.”

“And we certainly haven’t agreed on the best way to live in the world as good human beings.

Purpose and meaning in life arise through fundamentally human acts of creation, rather than being derived from anything outside ourselves.”

All lives are different, and some face hardships that others will never know.”

“But we all share the same universe, the same laws of nature, and the same fundamental task of creating meaning and of mattering for ourselves and those around us in the brief amount of time we have in the world.”

Three billion heartbeats. The clock is ticking.”

Those quotes are from physicist Sean Carroll from his fascinating book, The Big Picture: On The Origins of Life, Meaning and the Universe Itself.

You don’t have to be a physicist to enjoy it either.

My takeaway is, it’s as if the universe is an enormous jigsaw puzzle. Each of us is one interlocking piece without which the puzzle could never be completed.

We may think, at different times, that we are not important, that even if we’re missing, the picture the completed puzzle makes will still be recognizable, but that’s a lie.

You are an irreplaceable part of destiny.

Steve Jobs had to feel as if his place in history had been destroyed when he was forced out of the company he had founded by a man he had hired.

But that trauma ended up being the fuel Jobs needed to totally change Apple into the world’s most valuable brand.

He himself said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.

While you may not always believe it, you are here at this time, in this place, totally unique, with your specific gifts and flaws, for a purpose.

The beauty is, we don’t have to know that purpose for it to be fully realized. Does any individual rain drop understand how vital a part it plays in refreshing a parched world?

The doubt we feel, the restlessness and uncertainty, is instinct whispering to us when we have lost our way.

It’s God, placing an almost imperceptible hand on our shoulder saying, “I am. And so are you.”