I drive to work every weekday, 45 minutes.

Often times I spend this entire time in my own head, in my car. Just a singe person, in a tiny, uncomfortable bubble.

When I find myself in a mindset like this, it bothers me. It bothers me because I know there is more to the world than that. It’s at times like these that I stretch. Not physically, but mentally.

I start my stretch with a reach outward from the introverted mindset and realize that I’m not alone on the 401. I’m in fact joined by thousands of other minds sitting in their own physical and mental self imposed bubbles. It makes me happy to know that somewhere out there on the stretch of road there is likely someone else stretching out their world view to include me as an anonymous like mind.

Beyond the road I find that aside from being one of thousands of people on a well beaten path, I am part of something bigger. The grass, trees, insects, rodents and other living and breathing organisms join me as part of my day. I include them as my mind stretches across the blanket of life that stretches out in all directions surrounding me. Somewhere among them, one briefly glimpses that it is part of something bigger, something that includes me, and I smile to think of it.

A bigger jump now. I’m standing on a ball called Earth, staring up at the sky with my arms raised like a kid on a roller coaster screaming with wonder as I am hurled through the solar system at 107,000 km/h. I’m in the front seat of the coaster watching the sky race by at a blinding pace that I am usually oblivious too. My mind wanders to someone else on earth, arms raised, screaming with joy as they sit next to me on this cosmic coaster. I do not know this someone, but we are kindred, and I smile to think of it.

Stretch. Our solar system is on of innumerable similar systems in the galaxy. We hurtle through the galaxy at speeds that escape my wildest imagination. Our galaxy in turn rockets through the universe in a like manner. How many sentient beings scattered across the known and unknown vastness at this very moment hold a picture of the universe in their minds and are reaching out to embrace with thought, like minded individuals. Billions. Trillions. Numbers that perhaps escape description. All of us, on our own coasters, arms raised in the air hurtling through time and space toward unknown destinies. So far apart, yet together in a very real and epic sense. Once again, I smile to think of it.

Dare I continue and test the limits of my mind’s reach and venture into higher dimensions where even more sentients are stretching the limits of their consciousness across the near infinite possibilities of what I can only call existence…

Wow…a few moments prior I was a single man, in a car in traffic. Now, I am a voice among innumerable others, calling out to and embracing all of existence.

I look across to the person in the car next to me, and wonder “Are you in a tiny bubble with no room to stretch or breathe, or are you at the front of the coaster, screaming with me?”

Think about it.