Living in a big city has many benefits. Plenty of job opportunities, plenty of stores to go shopping, a variety of major sports teams to root for, and a melting pot of people to interact with. However, one of the limitations of living in a big city comes in the form of having an obstructed view of the cosmic masterpiece above our heads every night. On clear nights, we can still see the stars and constellations, but the lights and smog of big city living prevents us from getting a clear picture of what the night sky truly looks like. An infinite swarm of magnificent nuclear explosions floating in a sea of infinite space and time.

There have only been a few times in my life where I have had the opportunity to have an unobstructed view of the cosmos. Looking back, I never truly appreciated what was above me in the night sky. I think as human beings, we are too concerned with our individual lives and identities to even care about anything outside our current reality and control. There are responsibilities here on earth, but realizing the vastness and the beauty of the entire universe we are floating through can be extremely humbling, and make these responsibilities seem almost obsolete.

The fact that so much exists outside our control can be pretty scary as well. We are at the disposal of the universe and all that it contains. The universe is in complete chaos, and can be totally unpredictable. We think we know a lot as humans, but our time here on earth as a species is trumped by the life span of the entire universe, over 13.7 billion years since the big bang.

Looking into a telescope can help change your perspective on a lot of things.

Most of us will only get to spend a few decades on this planet, never really understanding why we even exist in the first place. I don’t think we will ever have a true explanation, at least in our lifetime. We are moving farther away from understanding the cosmos, and moving closer towards extinguishing our own species. A suicide of our own humanity would be a good way to describe what we are heading towards. Materialism and war have prevented us from overall conscious growth, and has sent us into a state of turmoil.

There is still hope for us, but we need a shift out of our current state. We need the effort of the collective whole to truly make a change. We need something to snap us out of our current state, and into a new empowering understanding of the essence of our reality. What might this shift be? That remains to be unseen. What we can do individually is to help raise the awareness of our current situation to everyone we come into contact with. Making people more aware of what is going on is the first step. The next step requires a lot of effort, but this effort won’t last long without everyone on the same page.

It may seem impossible to completely change our current situation here on earth, and like I said it most likely won’t happen in our lifetime. What needs to happen is we have to inspire the youth. We have to inspire the future of our planet to want to create a change. We have to teach kids to love and appreciate each other, rather than make them feel like they are in competition for the resources of this planet. Our current school system is designed to train kids to be drones to the flawed system we already exist in. There are no conscious growth classes in elementary schools, at least as far as I know of. School is something every child needs to develop a structure for their life, but I feel a lot of schooling limits the creative potential of children. The system of education we are exposed to is designed to have us eventually feed more fire into our current state of chaos. It is sad that we have to send many of our youth into battle at a young age, many losing their lives fighting for a system that continues to strip basic values from society.

I recommend at some point in your life to take some time to detach from society. Taking some time to travel out of your current state to discover the bigger picture, if you haven’t already addressed the issue. Completely detaching yourself from society isn’t recommended, we still have to deal with our problems, and ignoring them simply won’t benefit you or anyone else.

Taking the time to explore the true essence of our nature will give you a better perspective. A perspective that doesn’t simply accept what our current state here on earth is, rather a perspective that enables us all to consciously grow towards a brighter future. The future might look pretty gloomy in our current state, but it doesn’t have to be that way if we work towards changing it.

Wake yourself up, and help others wake up too. There is a lot to be done here on earth, and one person cannot make a big difference no matter how hard they try. It takes a collective effort, and that effort will be well worth the effort. Once we are able shift our state of reality into a more peaceful and loving state of consciousness, we all can enjoy the benefits without restriction from any system of cultural and societal values.