A Tiny Insignificant speck...

This morning as I was sipping my first coffee of the day, my partner (Sean) made a comment about the Mars explorer that got me thinking. This earth we live on is a pretty neat place to be. We have all the natural beauty our eyes can ever want to feast on. We have, in some ways, made this a safer place to live and breathe. We can grow and harvest just about anything our little hearts desire, we have even created our own plants and vegetables (hybrids) for our pleasure. We truly are "one of a kind" and we are so proud of our uniqueness. How wonderful are we! But...wait now, are we unique?, are we so wonderful? The mention of the Mars explorer reminded me of 2003 when NASA sent voyager (I think that's the name) on it's trek to deep outer space. I watched in awe and wonder as the apparatus sailed past Mars and the officials on earth directed the gizmo to take a shot of earth as it ventured further into space. As I looked on I noticed several things happening at once. First I noticed how blue our earth is in comparison to all other planets. Next I noticed how small we were in relation to other planets. Finally, and most profoundly, how in the vastness of our universe, I observed with amazement how tiny and insignificant a speck our earth truly is. Talk about humbling! If our earth in all it's beauty and grandeur, with all it's flaws and flounces is so smalll and insignificant, in the big scheme of things how tiny and insignificant are we humans as a species? Further to this, how tiny and insignificant are our accomplishments and our quarrels? Just a little food for thought, sure makes you wonder and appreciate what we have doesn't it?!