Galactic Cowboys Circle the Carina Nebula

The photo shows just a small portion of the Carina Nebula, a colossal birthing cloud for new stars in our galaxy. The pillars of dust and gas which dominate the scene are about three light-years long. (Jonathan Amos, BBC News)

Could these ancient galactic cowboys circling the cosmos be rounding up angels to awaken star systems in the farthest reaches of the universe? Is this gorgeous Hubble image a composite of stardust or projected particles of our imagination?  Both, possibly, or none, actually.  

The human imagination is the last frontier. While we continue to search in dig sites for artifacts from our ancient past, probe microbiological mitochondria and explore our solar system's life systems on other planets and venture even further into the galaxy for life, it seems that in our individual and collective imagination is a kind of virtual telescope/microscope that sees in a way that the ancients understood and to which we are just now returning.  

In our colorful, dramatic, sensitive, curious, precious minds are the most irridescent, radiant elements of material and celestial creation. Even more so, within our imagination is a subtle force, a wise presence which those who are familiar with meditation or contemplative prayer already know.  

For a dull materialist mind, this image is of the Carina Nebula, a "birthing cloud" for star systems.  I'm not sure if my mind can wrap around such a thought, but somehow it seems that while it may be a generative cloud, it invites a deeper consciousness, a viable vision of intense perspective probing the infinite realms of reality and possibility.  

Have you ever closed your eyes at night and saw the moon within your mind, or the starry canopy of the Milky Way?  Within your mind, you can see infinitely and these images that you see are not remembered images, coming out of your memory.  Rather, they are really there.  I once was sleeping over at a friend's house, and was completely unaware that there was a full moon that night.  Just after I laid down, closed my eyes to go to sleep, there right in the center of my inner vision was the most radiant full moon.  I jumped up and went to the window, and before me was the most beautiful full moon. She almost seemed to be smiling, playfully with me.  "How could you forget I was here?"  she seemed to say, teasing. How was it possible that I could see the moon inside my head?  That was a long time ago.  Today, I see other things, but that's another story for another blog.  

You might want to look at these galactic cowboys, or other Hubble photos, or clouds in the daytime, and see what you see.  You might even want to write poetry, or paint water colors, or whatever creative idea comes up when you look at these beautiful gifts that are all around us all the time.  You might want to invite your own imagination to have fun with what you see.  Life is still beautiful, and that beauty may just begin in your mind.


Photo courtesy BBC science news:  
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/jonathanamos/2010/04/hubble.shtml