The Blue Marble And The 45th Anniversary

“I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.”
– Rainer Maria Rilke

Last Thursday, Joanna Macy, Natalie Batalha, Zilong, America, Linda, and I met at Joanna’s. As some of you might remember, the awesome DailyGood team recently featured sister Natalie: Exoplanets and Love, so as Joanna: A Wild Love for the World.

Since then, a vision came to put these two incredible powerful women together to share some insights and wisdom. The two of them have facilitated so much shift in consciousness –the 3rd dimension of The Great Turning— that only more magic can come from their encounter, like when hydrogen and oxygen molecules come together to create water. As you might remember, Natalie’s team –she is NASA’s Kepler Mission Scientist– announced a powerful discovery: one out of two stars you see in the sky, might have earth-like planets. What about that shift for the next time you look up and be kissed by the Milky Way!

This is what sister Natalie wrote in her social media stream:
“Shared an evening with Joanna Macy (right). Pancho (middle) made it happen. We shared our stories. There were smiles and hugs and tears and tea and berries and apples “that still remembered the tree.” I must write it all down. For now, I share this precious moment captured by Zilong (who, by the way, biked 3000 miles across the (part of the Planet we call the)US.”

Then, a day later sister Natalie wrote a touching note:

“I stayed home from work this morning — resting after a hectic week but mostly making space for reflection after our evening together. I’m full of gratitude that our paths crossed.

Joanna, you are luminous, and I so enjoyed listening to your stories and perspective. This morning, I went back to your On Being interview, this time listening while hiking the ridge line along the Mt. Diablo foothills. Each time I listen to you, I pick up a new detail. This morning, it was a phrase that I’ve heard you use a few times now: “Moral Imagination”. Perhaps there is an evening in spacetime when we talk about our Moral Imagination. I hope so.”

“Tomorrow (that’s today July 20th!), we celebrate the 45th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s (humanity’s) first steps on the Moon. The image of our beautiful Planet captured on the Earth Flag was captured by the Apollo 17 astronauts, looking out their back window on their way to the Moon in 1972. It was the first time our entire planet was captured in a single image — an image which was later named “The Blue Marble“. I always imagine that when earthlings saw that image for the first time, human compassion grew. Humans were so used to looking at maps etched with borders. I remember seeing the image for the first time feeling that something was “missing” and laughing with delight and recognition. From space there are no borders. Neither should there be in our collective consciousness.”

Jai Jagat! 🙂