It is the small details that make up the big picture. The tiniest event can be the catalyst for the greatest adventure ever. Why is it we sometimes fail to recognise the real thing as it happens? Why do we steer away from something that could lead to something beautiful and amazing? Why do we decide to turn away from the person who could be the one to unlock our heart?

As I write this over 39,000 feet high in the sky half way across the Atlantic on a red eye flight to the land where it all began – my home, I realise while looking out through the airplane window how different and wonderful this world looks from above. Some see only darkness and emptiness. I see wonder and a billion reasons for being alive…for seeing beauty in life itself.

We see our world as something we wish we can change in an instant. Yet we are changing our own worlds all the time without ever knowing we are doing it. We want to help the masses. We want to change the world. We try so hard to the point where we put the world first before ourselves. I am guility of this more times than I wish to admit. 

With so much wrongdoing and sadness all over the world, what can we do to change that? We are the lucky ones not just because we live in a free world but because we have made it this far. We are still alive. A part of being alive is to remember and acknowledge the ones who have faded so life makes it possible for us to appear and continue an existence far better than theirs.

Billions of people on this planet live to struggle so we can keep breathing. For every breath we take they take one less. This world will always keep turning. Humanity will always keep moving. To where? Do we decide humanity’s direction? I believe we do. As a humanist my faith is in humanity to be better and do better. 

What will become of us as we keep breathing? Can we be the ones to move the world towards betterment of us all? Can we make it so we all breath the same? We all have a gift, an individual gift and within that gift are a billion reasons for why to make the world better. And it only takes one reason out of a billion to actually pursue a path to make it happen, to be the catalyst for great amazing things. 

The world is not empty as long as we recognise the billion small details that creates the big picture. The world is not empty as long as we keep breathing. After all every one of us is one in a billion transforming reality as we dream it to be. Every one of us makes up the big picture by connecting to one another.

Once upon a time in the not-too-distant future…humans marveled at what could have been if they had taken a path of wonder and discovery instead that of greed and power.

It is not too late.

As days pass, from one morrow to the next I wonder what will become of the human race, of our world and of our legacy among the stars. Will we bring about our own extinction? Will we ever overcome our ignorance and idiocy? Will we ever put aside our petty differences and focus on the things that unite us for a better tomorrow? The future is just as scary as the present. What we do today determines what happens tomorrow.

When I was young I often looked up to the sky and lose myself in the stars. Even on the cloudiest of days I knew the stars were still there even though I could not see them. I learned that every time I looked up I was also looking deep within myself. It was like looking at a reflection of myself inside a sea of waves and ripples. I discovered no matter what happened the stars were always up there shining down on me. It brought me comfort. It gave me hope.

Who I was back then I still am today. I am still that boy who looks up to the heavens every day and every night. Still looking beyond the greyest of clouds and seeing the stars shine brighter than ever. My hopes and dreams live on in the boy that continues to live on in the man I am today. I guess I will always be that boy for as long as there are stars in the sky.

I hope more people look up to the stars. I hope even for just a brief moment people experience the humility and awe of the heavens – our true birthplace. The stars are the only proof we need to create a better and beautiful tomorrow for every one of us. The stars bring out our humanity in its most purest and truest form.

Who we were we will always be as long as we never forget the child we once were. We are the only ones who can change the path we are on by creating whole new different paths made up of the pieces from who we were…and who we aspire to become.

No matter how grey things look just remember to look up. The stars are always there shining down on us brighter than ever…deep in the past for a better tomorrow. 

All things lead to defining instants in our timeline. Connected. Intertwined. We are mere blips in time. To what end? On what path? At what cost? We move forwards and backwards in continuous flux. The past sometimes becomes stuck in the present. The future sometimes becomes an endless cycle of history repeating itself. But what makes us who and what we are is that we create and experience moments on our timeline like a story. Every decision we make, every choice we take, all determines the next page or chapter. As a result we are our very own heroes and villains. 

We are timeless creatures bounded by the limits we create in our minds yet we can live on beyond death in the minds of others. In a way we are space-time humans. Cosmic nomads traveling from world to world searching and wandering. We are our own metaphors, projections writing our life’s story alone and together at the same time. The hero and the villain. As storytellers we are on a cycle only we can break. When it breaks new wonders emerge. New discoveries are made. New encounters that shape our lives forever.

Recent events may have turned our worlds upside down but we have the power to turn the next pages and chapters into something amazing. We cannot let the villian beat the hero inside us. This is our story. We get to decide how our story goes not some other person of power. The hero inside us must learn to defeat the villain within and the villains that roam our timelines. What was once good can be good again. A wise doctor once said “We are all stories in the end, just make it a good one eh?”. 

In the end all that matters is our story. In the end we are more than just blips in time. Every heart beat is a letter on a page writing out the story of your life. We are the makers of our own worlds. The greatest story ever written, ever told and ever lived…has been, is and will always be….your story.

“Another world, another time, in the age of wonder…”

– Dark Crystal, one of the many films my mum introduced me to and watched with me when I was just a wee boy.

Happy Birthday Mum! I am forever in your debt for creating me and bringing me into the world. You are the source of all that is good in my world. You are the the beginning of my story and I hope in the end I make you proud. You taught me the value of what it means to be alive. You taught me kindness, compassion and love for all people regardless of differences and disagreements. You showed me that it is possible to keep going even when people act cruel towards you or hurt you or try to break you for their own selfish and malicious agendas. You have been through so much and made unbelievable sacrifices for the happiness of your children. Your strength is my strength. You gave me the freedom to dream, to think for myself, to question everything and create my own path in life – one of the greatest gifts any mother can give to their child. You never forced me to be something I am not. In your own special way you expressed your love for me. You made your one and only son feel special.

You introduced me to cinema, the arts, music, science and created the environment where I was able to go on my own journey to find myself. I have learned many beautiful, amazing and powerful things from you but there is one thing that will stay with me in my travels going beyond my existence here. One thing that will live on in everything I leave behind. It is that memories are more than just moments to be cherished and remembered. Memories are the only thing that give our lives any meaning and purpose. It is the cornerstone of all our stories on Earth. When my time comes to perish and to make my way back home from where I came from, the stars, it is the memories I will leave behind that will live on forever. I will always remember you Mum like a memory that will always remember me…forever, across time and space. 

-X-

What is it that makes us feel alive? Every moment in our lives is defined by what comes next and sometimes it can change things that have already happened or sometimes it changes everything we are. How? Why? What the hell am I talking about? Time. Time is a world of its own. I guess we have to learn how time works on a human level. 365 days on a cosmic scale means nothing (literally) but to us it can mean everything or anything. And if that is not enough to make your life count then what is the point of any it?

When the Big Bang happened, time also began. From that point onward time had a its own way to tell the story. What came long after was the beginning of a story like no other…it eventually lead to our story. The story of humanity. And to stand still in time is like not living in time. For what its worth for all time and space, don’t stand still. Don’t watch the world pass by. Be the one who makes the world pass by.