Yesterday was a big day in the science world as LIGO announced the discovery of gravitational waves in the universe. LIGO stands for, Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, and they have been hoping to prove Einsteins theory of gravitational waves and the bending of space/time since Einstein first proposed the idea.
And with the announcement yesterday we can now explore space in a new way. Here is a cool video from World Science Festival:
This wave was the result of two black holes colliding. That’s a pretty massive event. And throughout the universe there are many such events taking place or have taken place and we are just now feeling or recording their vibrations.
Everything, including us, creates a vibration. All energy, once it begins, continues on forever and forever. Energy never stops. Every note of music played is still slowly rolling through space and time. Each word uttered, each shout, every tear that rolled from an eye and struck the ground has created a vibration that continues on and on. Every birth and death still exists because energy never ceases moving. Just because the sound waves from the cry of a baby were stilled when that child was comforted doesn’t mean that they ended. The sound of the cry became mingled with the sounds of the mother’s gentle cooing and they carried out in a long slow journey into a space that appears endless.
Every move we make, every breath we take (thanks Sting), become vibrations with no end. And while it is probably not a proven scientific fact, I would like to think that the vibrations we make from a positive, loving place have a gentler impact on the universe then the ones made from a negative and hateful place. I would like to think that those vibrations look different, sound different, travel differently but the reality is that they are probably measured the same in terms of waves and sound. That would seem more scientifically sound.
But on earth in the here and now I know for a fact that the vibrations we create do carry a different impact. Maybe not in terms of how they will continue to roll out across the universe but in terms of how they roll across the place where each of us currently stands.
If we truly understood the influence we have in terms of our own cosmic waves we send out then maybe we would make better choices. If I am part of the waves in space/time then I need to understand just how valuable and important that makes me. And you. Each of us is so incredibly miraculous in our very existence. It took the collisions of black holes, the explosion of stars, the formation of gasses, and the beautiful dance of gravity to create a planet so unique in the known galaxies that life found a way to blossom. And if you don’t think you stand squarely on the shoulders of your ancestors just remember that all it would have taken was for ONE of them to fall into a raging river, or die of a raging plague and YOU would never have existed. Instead you are here, the winner of a cosmic lottery, the winner of DNA that fought its way though a billion trials to find itself right here, right now, in the distinct shape of you.
In many ways you have an obligation to the ones that came before you. You owe it to them to appreciate the miracles, the millions and millions of miracles that it took to get you here. You may not feel like you are much in the big expansive reaches of space. You might in fact feel quite small and insignificant when you look up at night and see not only the brightness of stars but the darkness that is between them. But you aren’t small. You are special. Special in ways that are hard to even fully describe. So special that in all of those stars you can see and in all the darkness between those stars, there is only ONE YOU.
Yesterday they announced the recording of the collision of two black holes, a collision that happened so long ago that none of us were even a twinkle in the eye of the universe. And yet those vibrations still carry on. I love this quote:
An old man once said:
In the end, when your name is spoken, the sentiment evoked by the vibration will show how well you have lived your life.(from The Book of Ceremonies, A Native Way of Honoring and Living the Sacred)
Go live your life well today, make some good vibrations, let the universe know you are here. Live like the miracle you are.
Here is a cosmic chirp from the gravitational waves made long ago:
A Blue Cape Cod 