To Infinity and Beyond

On May 30th, 2020 SpaceX made history by launching NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to space. It was the first time a commercially built and operated spacecraft has launched from US soil. The hope is that the successful launch of this spacecraft will bring a new era in human space flight. The pictures and video are stunning! Close up images of the moment the shuttle breaks away from the tower, inside the cock pit, the moment the thruster detaches, the moment they achieve zero gravity and let a sequin dinosaur stuffie fly free and the amazing arc of our beautiful earth as the shuttle continues to move deeper into space. It’s breathtaking and exciting and if you haven’t watched, take the 10 minutes to be amazed!

Oddly, I hadn’t heard too much about the fact that there was even a space launch planned. Maybe something in passing, but lately I have found myself staying away from the news. There’s just too much sadness and despair. But this particular morning, while I busied myself in the kitchen getting breakfast ready for the family, I watched as my husband and youngest daughter snuggled together on the couch (still in jammies) watching the live feed on his cell phone of this historical moment. My husband was excited and must have thought this was a pretty cool thing to be able to experience with our young child.

After all, we remember growing up witnessing the Challenger launch on January 28th, 1986. I remember very specifically it was a Tuesday, a school day. I remember the teacher rolling the old TV cart into the classroom and sitting on the reading carpet with all my peers to experience history. I remember watching that grainy footage of the seven souls (including a teacher) walk across the bridge and into the Challenger to take their seats. And of course I remember that 73 seconds after it launched, it all went terribly wrong. But the excitement was palpable and it brought us together on that classroom carpet in utter disbelief of what we were seeing. They were putting people in space and as a child that’s something I couldn’t even fathom!

So back to present day, there they are sitting and watching this amazing footage of the SpaceX in mere minutes exiting the Earth’s atmosphere and entering the vast unknown. It took less than 4 minutes to get to the other side! The thing that struck me as I continued to go about my kitchen duties was that the moment the shuttle was in space, our sweet daughter’s response was, “Cool! I’m hungry now! I’m gonna go get something to eat.” There was no real sense of awe and wonder. She didn’t sit and ponder her existence. It didn’t feel as though it inspired her.

Now I don’t fault her for that. I know times have changed since the 1980-something TV that I watched space launch from. I know that things move a lot faster these days and our attention is pulled in many different directions. Statistics suggest that the average YouTube video view is 4 minutes and 20 seconds. So even if a video is 25 minutes long, the average person can only manage just a fraction of that before moving on. And I’m also guilty of not taking the moment to experience history. In my mind I figured I could just watch it again later. I could literally pull up a thousand different feeds of it and watch on leisure. That’s just the speed of technology now!

But there’s a lesson to be learned in all of this. Her comment about being hungry really struck me. It made me realize that I would be doing her an injustice if I didn’t take a moment to slow her down and help her to understand what was happening. Of course I fed her (probably some horrible sugary cereal, don’t judge); but I also knew that eventually I’d have to chat with her to help her understand the importance of not letting big moments slip by without properly processing them and respecting them.

I guess the lesson today is just a reminder to slow down and really process what’s going on around you. Get excited again about the little things AND the big things that happen all around you every day. Don’t rush to move on to the next thing but rather appreciate the view from wherever you are in that moment. Also, if you have kids (little or big) help them to really appreciate the world around them by slowing them down and taking the time to talk to them about the importance of not being too hurried. It’s a busy life with lots of things pulling our attention each and every day, but if we decide to pause and really feel, with emotion, what’s going on around us, then we are giving ourselves a gift of respect and appreciation.

“What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with wisdom at your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations.” Psalm 104:24 The MSG

Enjoy the view,

April

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Photos courtesy of pexels.com