I'm thinking of the scale of existence, from a single quantum (I've seen one) that builds our 80 stable atoms, to a DNA molecule of a hundred billion atoms. Each of the 30 trillion cells of every mammal contains one.
The hundred billion mammals on earth are so small you can't see them from space, our entire earth is only a tiny blue dot to the Voyager spacecraft.
Our whole solar system is only one of 200 billion stars in our galaxy; there are more than a trillion galaxies visible in our universe...
Throughout this entire inconceivable 80+ orders of magnitude of existence, patterns of light absorption (Fraunhofer lines) tell us that exactly the same atoms, exactly the same quanta, define existence.
Yet, just here in my back yard there is complexity enough for hundreds of kinds of plants, each with their own consciousness, hundreds of kinds of insects, dozens of kinds of birds... They, and I, all are built of the same 80 kinds of atoms.
This truly is the Great Spirit of the Cree, keechee manitowe, that has been part of everything since time began.
John Sankey 2025