As the first iconic frames of “Star Wars” scrolled up the screen, I was hooked. As a kid in a small-town darkened movie theater, my life was changed watching the epic battles, heroics and the planetary travel that ignited my sense of wonder. My love of space and science was born – setting me on a lifelong path, seeing life as an adventure.
I also sought comfort from childhood challenges in my local library, reading every sci-fi book I could find, inserting myself into worlds of magic and mystery. I picked up Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos,” had an epiphany and set out on a more expansive quest for joy.
George and Carl gave me Outer Space. Inner peace would take much longer to find, but not too late for me to discover that it’s all interconnected.
Science Fiction held warnings and lessons relevant to the human condition; it seemed that it was somehow far away in location, time-frame or the realm of possibility – that there was time for us to act, to change.
This current time warp we are living implores us to do the same – and we’ve run out of time. For me, I am amplifying my mantra: “Allow yourself to stay constantly amazed.” I am shouting out my sense of wonder because wonder is contagious.
I am so grateful to have been given a cosmic perspective of adventure and wonder as a child. As an adult, my great quest is to synthesize those lessons in my own starry interior, come back down to earth and share my sense of wonder. Pretty amazing, right?
“For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.” - Carl Sagan
Rachelle Boucher is a private chef, appliance whisperer and contributor to MOCA+