Spring 2022

Time. Time is movement. Movement is time. Time is change. Change is movement. Change, movement and time are all the same concept.

What we consider as clock time is just our assigning measurement to the day’s rotation of the earth. A year is a measure of the orbit of earth around the sun.

From the electrons moving around the nuclei of atoms that make up all substance, to the incomprehensible vastness of infinite space, movement/ change/ time never ceases.

Our planet is 24,901.5 miles in circumference at the equator. The 24 hour day means that sitting in your chair you are not still, you are moving 1,037.5 miles per hour. The earth your chair is on is moving 66,616 miles per hour around the sun. Imagine the speed of our solar system revolving in the disc of our Milky Way galaxy. Thinking of our ride on this little blue marble can make you dizzy.

Back in our human scale of things is a change we all recognize—the seasons. The convenient tilt of our planet causes us to alternate between colder, darker days to warmer, lighter days, and keeps us from boredom. Now we enter spring.

As in all things, Spring itself is changing. It looks like another earlier, drier spring this year. Even in the last decade it has been noticeably shifting in this direction. The wildflowers come up sooner, are sparser, bloom and fade quicker, in response and adaptation to this climate shift. Some people are alarmed by these changes.

The big picture of our place in the universe can be a powerful calming influence on these fears. The plants and animals, the life of earth, are just adapting as they always have throughout the history of life on our planet. All will evolve, move location, survive or go extinct as always. This applies to humans as well who, in spite of their huge brains and achievements, are no different than all the other creatures.

As a note of encouragement, I’ll describe a photograph in the recent Sierra Club magazine. The photo shows a fungus gnat that was encased in amber 40 to 45 million years ago. Today its identical descendants are found nearly everywhere in the world, including in the soil of your potted plants. As one would put a coin near an object in a photo for size perspective, I offer this: What you would recognize as anatomically modern humans emerged only 250 thousand years ago, started living in permanent settlements only 50 to 30 thousand years ago.

So don’t worry, be happy with the life you have and fasten your seat belts because we are travelling at 1,037.5 miles per hour. Enjoy the ride.