I had a nice moment during the period of time when I was reading this book. I was just floating in the ocean and looking up at the sky in the late afternoon sun at Good Harbor. And there were seagulls flying over me. And I was looking down over my floating body at my toes. And I just had one of those moments where I realized that we are the earth. We are all made out of the same stuff. Need to think this through more and refine that.
Here is what I wrote in my notes: The earth is why we exist. Had this thought when I was floating in the water at good harbor the other day. We are a product of th earth and evolution. There would be no us without the earth and the natural order of how it functions. We are all just products of evolution and this crazy miracle of the thing that happened to happen on this planet we are on. Something like cancelling class and letting people out early from work and class for the total eclipse.
This quote sort of sums up one of my main takeaways from the book:
“Well, we are the stars,” Joan said. “And the stars are us. Every atom in our bodies was once out there. Was once a part of them. To look at the night sky is to look at parts of who you once were, who you may one day be.”"
“But I think it is also the relief I feel that those stars are immovable. Nothing you or I could do will ever alter them. They are so much bigger than us. And they will not change within our lifetime.”
“The steady hum of the wind drowned out almost everything except the sound of her own voice inside her mind. Which was such a gift. She had always been her greatest friend, her greatest guide. Up here, all she could hear was that voice. The kindest version of her. Look at the clouds, take a breath, do you see how pale the blue of the sky can be?”
“The world beyond the edges of her eyelids can and will be a dangerous place. But that she can hide from it for whole seconds at a time when she closes her eyes. So she stays there, and breathes. In once, out once.”
“Joan was always moved by the fact that everything–all matter on Earth and beyond, up past the atmosphere, going as far as the edges of the universe, as it expands farther and farther away from us–is made from the same elements. We are made of the same things as the stars and the planets. Remembering that connection brought Joan comfort. It also brought her some sense of responsibility. And what was kinship but that? Comfort and responsibility.”
“Joan knew then that Donna was not an idiot. And the Beatles were not nonsense. And that there had always been a place for her in this world. She had just been walking past it over and over again, never noticing that there was an unmarked door, waiting for her to discover it.”
“Joan was shocked at herself, how quickly she had learned to shed decades of inhibitions”
“I would go so far to say that as human beings, we are less of a who and more of a when. We are a moment in time–when all of our cells have come together in this body. But our atoms were many things before, and they will be many things after. The air I’m breathing is the same air your ancestors breathed. Even what is in my body right now–the cells, the air, the bacteria–it’s not only mine. It is a point of connection with every other living thing, made up of the same kinds of particles, ruled by the same physical laws.” “When you die, someone will bury you or turn your body into ashes. Eventually, you will return to the Earth. You already are a part of the Earth. What better reason do we have to take care of this Earth and everything on it than the knowledge that we are of one another?”
“The trees need our breath, and our breath needs the trees,” she continued. “As scientists we call that symbiosis, and it is a consequence of evolution. But the natural consequences of our connections to each other–that’s God, to me. I believe in it because I can see it with my own eyes, I know it exists. But I also belive in it because I want to believe in it. I want to spend my energy thinking not of how my actions might be frowned upon by a man in the sky, but how my actions affect every living and non-living thing around me. Life is God. My life is tied to yours, and to everyone’s on this planet. How does that not instantly make us more in debt to one another? And also offer us the comfort that we are not alone?”