NASA recently released a beautiful image of our earth from 1 million miles away.

Whenever I see a picture of the earth, I become fascinated with this incredible planet we inhabit. The astonishingly perfect circle, with whispers of land engulfed by the gorgeous appearance of blue waters, all beneath sweeping white cloud masses. Simply breathtaking.

These distant images of our planet routinely lead me to a sense of calm as the sphere appears as one gorgeous entity, one location, and brings a perspective that we’re all inside of this one large circle, a part of one huge community. We are all there inside of that picture living our lives, doing our things, and making our meanings after all. The lines visible on our maps that separate territories and label locations don’t exist in reality of course. And with that absence, without those lines inside of which we identify ourselves, a larger sense of our community can be considered.

One of the mostly widely accepted definitions or understandings of how communities work is from social psychologists McMillan & Chavis who in 1986 formed a theory called the “Sense of Community”.

To summarize, McMillan and Chavis propose that “community is a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that member’s needs will be met through their commitment to be together (McMillan, 1976).”

How enjoyable and peaceful it is to look at our planet from this angle and imagine we are all simply a part of this larger community, all simply living inside this beautiful, big blue marble.

It’s a beautiful thought, don’t you agree?