I read an article today, which really affected me.  It was concerned with animals’ ability to think. Like humans.   More succinctly, the article came from a gentleman who had spent the past 15 years studying the wolves of Yellowstone.

This account centered around a wolf named Twenty-One.

An incredible story, this was.  Twenty-One.  His life was amazing. His ability to think, interact, reason, and play.  And then.  It reminded me about the bigger picture.

Humans.  We are.  And we can be full of ego.  We have a tendency to feel superior.  Certainly most people feel superior to animals, and all that is non-human.  Sometimes, we even hold notions of superiority over other humans.

As a result, I think, we lose sight of peace.

The truth of it is, we all share this planet beneath our feet, and the the great grand sky above.  We are all here together.   We, as humans, need to start acting like it.  Otherwise, our planet will curl up and die… in the not-so-far-off future.

We are just tiny specks in this big, big universe.  Even on this very planet…. we are pretty small.  There are 7 billion people in this world.  That is 6,999,999,999 more than 1.

As if I haven’t sprinkled this thing with enough happiness and cheerful thoughts…. let me give you a little more.  I don’t really have any answers to any of this.  I wish it didn’t feel so daunting at times.

But what I do know is this.  It is a conundrum.  Every person is pretty great, in their own right.  Yes. We are simultaneously insignificant, and exceptional.  I think the more we focus on our ability to be remarkable, the better off this planet will be.

And by being remarkable, I suggest we be uncommonly good.  We should seek peace, not conflict.

One notable individual, named St. Francis said this:  “For it is in giving that we receive.”  In giving peace, we will receive it.   And that might be the most remarkable thing any of us could ever hope to achieve in this life. To be a person of peace.

Make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.  (Prayer of St. Francis)

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
— Douglas Adams

If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.
— Yogi Berra

One may say the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.
— Albert Einstein