So often, when I feel the weight of decisions, and the stress of juggling uncompleted goals, I try to remind myself what time it is.

11:59 and 59 seconds.

You'll see what I mean in a moment...

I try to catch myself from seeing time from the most natural perspective: the human perspective.

I try to remember there's a big, big world out there that's on a very different clock. The 12 billion year-old universe clock.

Imagine something with me.

Imagine that the entire history of the universe took place in one year. (That's a billion years every month.)

Here's how the year would look...

NEW YEAR'S DAY
The Big Bang. Most scientists agree with George Lemaitre who, in 1931, reasoned the universe was packed together at enormous density; and at an extreme temperature. Moments after the Big Bang, the world was a million times larger. Then how big was our universe? Many scientists believe about the size of a quarter.

MARCH
(3,000,000,000 yrs. old)
Our very own galaxy, The Milky Way, forms. How unique is our galaxy? It's one of 200,000,000,000 galaxies.

AUGUST
(8,000,000,000 yrs. old)
Our sun and planets are born way out in the boonies of the Milky Way. (Our sun is one of 200,000,000,000 suns in our "hood."

SEPTEMBER
(9,000,000,000 yrs. old)
The first sign of life appears on our earth; single cells form.

NOVEMBER
(11,000,000,000 yrs. old)
It takes another 2,000,000,000 years for multi-celled life forms to appear. Now we're cooking...

DECEMBER 1
(12,000,000,000 yrs. old)
In the blink of a cosmic eye, the earth becomes a glorious garden; as plants evolve everywhere. (Through photosynthesis, plants will prove to be one of the intrinsic ingredients to sustaining human life.)

DECEMBER 20
The first 4-legged animals appear.

DECEMBER 21
Insects establish their niche as the most abundant life form on earth. Life is flourishing...

CHRISTMAS EVE
Dinosaurs appear; the earth's first great ruler.

CHRISTMAS DAY
Our first mammalian ancestors arrive.

DECEMBER 27
Birds, our first flying creatures, are a welcome addition to our palette of life.

DECEMBER 29
A comet or asteroid collides into our Earth, wiping out many life forms - including the dinosaurs. The explosion causes unparalleled earthquakes, volcanoes and title waves.

DECEMBER 31
10:15 AM
Apes appear.

9:24 PM
The earth welcomes our first human ancestors.

11:59 PM and 45 seconds
Hieroglyphics appear: humans write their story on cave walls.

11:59 and 50 seconds
Pyramids are built in Egypt.

ONE SECOND BEFORE MIDNIGHT
Columbus discovers America.

1/10TH OF A SECOND BEFORE MIDNIGHT
The earth is blessed with a tremendous gift of extraordinary potential... You are born.



Time is both the truest constant - and the most fleeting commodity in our lives.

Time is both our most precious gift - and our enemy.

We have been blessed with the chance to enjoy 80 years on this astonishing planet; ever-evolving and continuing to blossom a plethora of new life.

Our challenge is use this precious gift of time to make a difference; to fearlessly leave an imprint in the sand that tells the unique story of our heart, our mind - and our passions.

So the next time you look up at the clock, think of the universal clock...

Maybe it's not 11:59 and 59 seconds.

It's the first second of the rest of your universe's life.