Dear Reader:

We are the universe. Doesn’t that sound like something out of a sci-fi fiction novel or a space alien B-rated movie? Me…little me…I am the universe? Ah…you’re pulling my leg! Really?

We are not “in” the universe, we “are” the universe. Could that really be? And if so…what an amazing miracle!

This blog post was intended initially to be about the importance of connections…to other people… but I soon realized that connections on earth extend farther out that just our own planet we call home. How many times in our own lives have we been able to reflect back on a time when a connection to another human being lead us successfully getting in the college of our choice, or landing that first job, or finding the person or house of our dreams?

When someone says something like “Connections are everything in life…it’s not what you know…it’s who you know”  we all nod because we have all been placed in situations where that observation played out that way for us…in one form or another.

The other day I had a little epiphany about the importance of human connections along our life’s journey…why human connections are the secret to a fulfilled life.

Isn’t that what Jesus left telling us with the last commandment… today often called the New Commandment? Judas Iscariot had already left the “Last Supper” and Jesus then turned to the eleven other disciples and gave them his final farewell with these words…“Love one another; as I have loved you.”

Isn’t this commandment another way of saying today to reach out and help others who walk beside and behind us in our path through life?…To make human connections with as many people whose paths cross ours as possible and assist them into discovering the right direction to their own fulfilled lives?

When I read these words the other day “Do not be lonely,  the entire universe is within you” once again I paused and re-read the quote. How could I not remember my dolphin episode at Edisto Beach almost nine years ago? If that dolphin could have left me a written note it would have been very similar to this one.

That memory is still crystal clear…I was sitting on the jetties that foggy fall morning in 2008, following my diagnosis of breast cancer, wondering what a future (if I had any) with breast cancer would be like… And then suddenly that dolphin jumped up right in front of me and for that split second made contact…eye to eye. I knew immediately what this creature of God was telling me.

“All is right in the world…everything is just the way it should be.” I heard those words in my head so clearly and immediately my doubts and worries dissipated like the early morning fog…and now here I still am in 2017 writing my blog post.

Theologian C.S. Lewis tried to tell us the same thing when he said:

“We don’t have a soul. We are a soul. We happen to have a body.”

Once again…we keep hearing it over and over…in thousands of different ways…we are all connected to the universe because we are all the universe…we are one in the spirit!

One of the great things that has come out of living with cancer is the fact that I understand my body better than I ever have. (Hate to admit it but I “semi-dosed off ” in most biology courses I took.)

Everything in the body is connected. I realize now that many cancer patients never die from cancer directly …but from the side effects on the body from different powerful medications and treatments. Any time we do one thing to the body it affects so many other things…because like the universe our body parts are all connected in the same way. Every part has a special job to do for the benefit of the whole…to sustain whole wellness.

Bless my little old body…it has definitely taken a “licking but keeps on ticking” and I thank it every morning when I wake up for doing so. My body continues to fight hard and that is all I can ask of it.

My body keeps me walking (even running after grandchildren) eating, sleeping, talking, laughing…it keeps me connected to family, friends, life and then God keeps me connected to Him. What a blessed woman I am! All I need do is pause now and then to see my connection to the world every single day.

So until tomorrow…Let us be thankful that our universe never stops moving…  because the sprocket of God keeps our world turning… connected to everything needed to keep the world ‘going round’ for all of us.

(Original watercolor by Anne Peterson)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh