Halloween Seventeenth

"Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet." -Stephen Hawking

I haven't been excited to share a quote or read a great new book in a while. I was helping my daughter with finding an article for her homework and I came across a brief description of Stephen Hawking's last book. I'm enamored by his belief in aliens, in the idea that everything can be explained by the laws of nature and the sad realization of how divided we are. 

Can you imagine a moment in time where people stop and look around and realize that we are all bigger than just the bodies we inhabit on this Earth? Instead of keeping your eyes down, focused on your own existence, wouldn't it be a nice change to stop and look at the stars? Look around you, focus on how you can impact the world around you, rather than how the world impacts you. Maybe we can stop wanting to fight over opinions and unpopular beliefs and learn basic respect all over again. I notice the noise in my head gets quieter when I stop caring about what others say and do and just care about others. 

It's the most difficult thing to do to take a step back and stop in this fast paced age we live in. I find it insanely hard to do sometimes, but I make myself. Some nights it's as easy as turning off my phone, plugging it in and tuning into my husband. We don't even have to talk about our day or anything at all. We can zone out to our shows together. But, that's just it, together. No social media or games or messages to respond to. Just responding to each other. I find it more and more refreshing to sign out of Facebook, Instagram, etc, and scroll through blog ideas or book lists instead of updates. Hell, most of the time I'd rather be writing than scrolling. And then there's reading. Reading is so much more rewarding than a picture of someone's dinner. Wait, I love food and I don't mind pictures of food, but when you chose something that nourishes you in a fulfilling way, it just feels right. It feels like a better internal connection in a sense. This disconnect helps me reconnect to things I want to do, to things I can control, to ways I can impact change in my world for the better.

Basically, I need to pick up this book. Or, better yet, my birthday is next month....