‘When you think of the universe…what do you imagine is at the ends?’

‘When you think of the universe…what do you imagine is at the ends?’
Happy Sunday lovely reader,

It’s been already a month since the launch of ‘Letters to Antoinette’ and I cannot thank you enough for all the support and positive feedback you’ve given me… I cannot even find the appropriate words to describe how happy and joyful I feel while working on this blog and ‘sharing myself’ with you.

Having in mind that the whole idea behind the blog revolves around ‘confessing’ myself and encouraging you to do the same – what could be a better day to feature the first letter that I received last week from the lovely Nicola Dorman. I hope you enjoy today’s post and also don’t forget to enter LTA’s 100+ Followers on Bloglovin’ First Celebration here to win a Filofax in Bright Purple and a gorgeous Rimmel lipstick ‘Let’s get naked’.

The letter:

Hello!

I am not sure why I felt I had to
send you this letter but I do and I am. I guess my question for you is a
rather odd but it’s something I?ve wandered and I?d like to know what you
think..When you think of the
universe…what do you imagine is at the ends? Just an eternal nothingness or
something else?It really fries my brain and the
more I think on it the less important things seem like a shitty day at work or
not having enough money to buy lots of new dresses. I?m sure I have a million more
important questions but for now this is the one I?m putting out there.

P.S. I can just imagine you
reading this and rolling your eyes thinking “What the hell have I gotten
myself into?”

P.P.S. That amuses me.

Nicola x

Happy Sunday Nicola,

When I
received your letter I was actually ecstatic ? not only because it was the
first one that anyone has sent me up to that point, but also because it left me somehow both dazed
and amused. I should admit that I didn?t really expect to face such a challenging question when I clicked to open your email.

For a
few days my thoughts have been running wild with my mind trying to come up with
a good response to your remarkable question. On a few occasions my friends had to actually
shout at me to take me back to reality?

Well, I
guess you?ve already skimmed a few of the million articles available online regarding
the issue. The thing is that I?ve done
that before ? reading about the Bing Bang theory and theories advocating the
incessant expansion of the Universe. However, rather than helping me reach some
valid conclusions they?ve actually left me even more perplexed, annoyed, and
dissatisfied. One of my ultimate weaknesses is my inability to proceed on doing
something else if there is a question to which I haven?t found an answer that
could adequately satisfy my inner curiosity (I blame my star sign for that).

Nicola,
I remember the day when I first thought about the vastness of the Universe. I woke up after
having one of those vivid and magical dreams in which I was floating in the air,
observing the people rushing on the streets and the cars crawling like bugs on
huge and crowded boulevards. My body was overwhelmed with feelings of freedom
and composure. And I could breath. That?s the thing I can most clearly remember
? this was the first time I could actually inhale deep enough to fulfill my lungs’ carve for oxygen and
then pursue whichever direction I wanted. I was flying over the mountains,
descending to only lightly touch the tops of the pines and get a taste of the naturally ‘flavoured’ mountain spring waters.

The
moment I woke up I sat up in bed and stared ahead still spacey and
light-headed. A pastel pink wall suddenly blocked the wide-open space and beautiful scenery that I
was previously relishing. For a second I felt completely suffocated, sitting there, enclosed within four walls. The thing is that the second turned into minutes, and then into days, and into months. I slowly began noticing the
physical boundaries, which were constantly blocking my way and my very desire to reach the ultimate freedom. The clothes you and I wear, the rooms in which we sleep, the
cars we drive, the offices in which we make money, the countries and continents
marked by illusory and inexistent demarcation lines, the Round Earth ? they all embody the ‘physical’ boundaries within which our corporeal bodies are confined. And
clearly these ‘borderlines’ have shifted into the ‘frontiers of the mind’. We?ve
become so used to being surrounded by ‘ends’ that it?s really difficult to
believe that there could be ?anything? without one. The house ends at its
bricks, the garden ? at its fence, the ocean ? at its shores.

You know, Nicola, I don?t even want to get into other more original examples – such as the language and prejudice barriers, as all the mental boundaries that our civilisation has built over
the years are simply uncountable. But since I started recognising them as such ?
something cracked in me. In a certain way I stopped inhibiting the mere Earth
and started cultivating my mind. I got quite exhausted from incessantly
struggling to find the answer to one of the greatest philosophical and
existential questions ? ‘What?s at the end of the Universe?’

This
question is actually quite similar to ‘What?s the greatest thing that one could
achieve?’

I?d say ?To influence people to open their
minds to enjoy much brighter and happier future…’

A
philanthropic would remark ‘Donating an organ to a sick child…’

A
pacifist would comment ‘To help stop the military actions’

A doctor
would probably say ‘To invent a cure for AIDS…’

While a
Beggar would probably utter ‘To scrounge enough money to feed my child…’

It?s all a matter of one?s subjective perspective. And I?m pretty sure if you pose the question at stake to any of the above mentioned people, they would come up with a different answer.

And you know? The ending boundary is not the sky, the Milky Way, or where the Universe supposedly ends. It is indeed ?the mind?. If you are ready to break the chains, which restrain it, if you?re bold enough to pursue your dreams neglecting phrases such as ‘That?s completely impossible’ you?ll stop seeing the Universe as ‘something’ that should or shouldn?t end.

You will initiate perceiving it as the white canvas on which you do art; the canvas on which you could paint your life in the colours and shades you desire, as really the Universe ends where your mind does. If your mind is ready to break free ? believe it or not – the eternalness of the Universe will not really seem as such an abstract notion anymore.

And
Nicola, the fact that you?ve already begun seeing the mundane encounters and
everyday obstacles as somewhat meaningless ? I think you?ve already discovered that
there is much more to life and in this sense to the Universe that we?ve been led to
believe.

Think Big, N., and occasionally remind yourself of Thoreau?s words ‘The world (and in this sense the Universe) is
but canvas to our imagination’… and then soon enough I’m pretty sure your mind will ‘paint’ the eternal nothingness/somethingness in a bit more extraordinary manner.

Lots of
love,