Thanking the Sun for its beauty and radiance makes our relationship feel more personal.
Happy day, beloved Joy Train Rider! Bless you! I hope you’re having a lovely week and you’re anticipating a great weekend if you have that opportunity. The traditional Monday-Friday work week with weekends off has never been the case for many people who work in healthcare and other fields, and it’s even less traditional now. As a communicator I have to notice and reflect changes that have taken place over my long history since the 1950s.I can’t just assume that what is true for me is true for everyone.
Already today I had a delicious exchange with my favorite political writer on X, Jack Hopkins, who laid out the accelerating threats to our country up to and post-elections. After giving strategic advice about how to prepare and how to influence the outcome, he concluded:
“This is what real resilience looks like. It’s not ‘Everything is sunny and we couldn’t be better!!,’ with smiles, and skipping barefoot through fields of gold.”
I responded immediately, “Beloved brother, I can live on the sunny side of the street while working no less hard than you to uphold our democracy. We can be effective without being mad.”
As an activist for humanity, the planet and our democracy, my main tool is love and happiness - hence the Joy Train is in its third year. Thank you to all of you that are paying passengers, and I invite everyone to go the distance with us and see what you might discover. Tickets start at $6 per month.
I’m proud to say my perspective is shaped and honed by the unearthly-seeming beauty I’ve experienced in our national parks and from standing in the places where our ancestors made pivotal history. To me there is no beauty, purity or perfection that is impossible, because I’ve seen it. I am secure in the knowledge that we are literally part of something so much greater than many of us can imagine, though it’s right here with us!
Today we’re traveling as far as we can to visit the impenetrable edge of our solar system the Oort Cloud. For many years the word “Oort” and the image it brings up tantalized my mind. Now with guidance from Google, we can press a button and have guidance open to us. I couldn’t have conceived of this as a young adult.
NASA suggests we use the Astronomical Unit (AU) to comprehend and navigate the distance - AU being the distance between Earth and the Sun, with 1 AU being roughly 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers.
According to the Agency, “the Oort Cloud is believed to be a giant spherical shell surrounding the Sun, planets and Kuiper Belt Objects. It's like a big, thick bubble around our solar system, made of icy, comet-like objects. The Oort Cloud's icy bodies can be as large as mountains – and sometimes larger. . .”
Wow! Imagine that!
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Audrey's Joy Train by Audrey Peterman to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.