Why? Because I'm little!

I think we all get to that point in life where we feel too busy to even breathe. All my spare moments have been dedicated to yoga and I've been so caught up in my own life I haven't sat down to think outside my bubble lately. I can imagine the shocked look on your face if you know me - Usually it's hard to contain my thoughts to something realistic that fits InSidE that tiny little bubble...

But alas it has been a while so bare with me if I'm a bit scattered on this one.

So anyways this realization is where I got my inspiration for this post on one of my favorite feelings - being small. Not in the sense of being weak or belittled, rather in the context of the world at large.

I was watching Planet Earth the other day and up pops the Great Barrier Reef. All the stats, facts, and crystal clear video footage was right there in front of me. I was looking at it, listening to it... but I wasn't seeing it or hearing it. I had flashed back to my own experience at the reef, the things I saw, felt and heard. I remembered the bumpy boat ride out to the crystal blue waters, the tingling sensation of the sun as it kissed my skin. Even the suction of the goggles as I put them on my face. I could vividly see myself sitting with my legs off the edge of the boat, hesitant to jump in the cool waters.

Then it was if I didn't jump in to the water at all, but rather a black hole. What I saw once I hit this watery black hole was another world. Well... an intimidating looking white tip reef shark only feet away from me, AND another world :]

The excitement, the curiosity, the energy of adventure swept through my body even as I visited this place in my memory. Everything I had seen from the comfort of my couch was now right there in front of me. Television, books, videos, articles, magazines, pictures, do it absolutely no justice.

Looking at the reefs was like looking down on another planet. I felt a bit vulnerable out in the open water but mostly, I felt small.

It's so easy to get caught up in our own lives. The places we go, the people we see, the routes we take and even the little short cuts. We find comfort in our houses and in our own country. It's so easy to forget just how big the world is. I recall having this feeling on numerous occasions upon my arrival in Australia. I remember trying to explain it to friends and getting an ignorant response that I was an "America hater" and they never expected me to come back. So I'll make this clear right now - I'm not hating on America. It is my home, it always will be. I'll never find the comfort I find at home in any other country, it's just too different.

My point is, in America we are very focused on ourselves. We have a big country with lots going on. Yes we hear about Japan and Europe and China... but it's usually over issues that involve us. Keeping us connected and caught up in ourselves seems to help create a great sense of pride for our country. And possibly a great sense of ignorance for others. Most of what I believed of other countries I got from various movies and videos. But when you are living as a 'local' in another place...it's quite different from the stereotypes that are depicted.

THE WORLD IS DRASTICALLY, COPIOUSLY, EXTENSIVELY, PROFUSELY, UN EXCLUSIVELY, BOUNDLESSLY - I cant even find the words to express the multitude of just how much BIGGER IT IS THAN WE REALIZE.

and I love it, I absolutely love it.

Our comfort zones are like one single chamber in an ant colony of one little hill in one city of one state of one nation of one continent of one plate on the earths surface! and boy oh boy do I love leaving it.