Contemplate this:

This is Mars. This is a photo taken by the Mars rover. Curiosity, of the surface of the planet and sent back here. (photo credit: NASA-JPL)































This is Mars, as seen from Earth in June 2003, through an 8-inch telescope.

And here is a picture of Earth from Mars, helpfully marked up.

Rest with the idea that it is possible to see Earth and Mars from each place. That each is a tiny dot of light in a sky that is filled with tiny dots of light.

Resist your mind's effort to add a story about how much it cost, to label it as worthwhile or a waste, to compare the mundane photos to a sci-fi fantasy of the Red Planet.

Just rest your mind in space. Notice feelings that come up -- excitement, fear, disgust, curiosity -- but try not to get carried away. Rest in that space.

Being but men, we walked into the trees
Afraid, letting our syllables be soft
For fear of waking the rooks,
For fear of coming
Noiselessly into a world of wings and cries.

If we were children we might climb,
Catch the rooks sleeping, and break no twig,
And, after the soft ascent,
Thrust out our heads above the branches
To wonder at the unfailing stars.

Out of confusion, as the way is,
And the wonder, that man knows,
Out of the chaos would come bliss.

That, then, is loveliness, we said,
Children in wonder watching the stars,
Is the aim and the end.

Being but men, we walked into the trees.
--Dylan Thomas