Spring is here.  There were several moments in recent weeks that I wasn’t quite sure if we were ever going to see the snow leave the yard.  It was so deep… and Michigan can have this tendency to tease a bit.  A relatively warm day in the upper 40’s one day… then back down into the teens the next.  It is a test of endurance… and sanity.

However…

Yesterday, we were able to take our first short walk in the woods together, without the worry of snow leaving its mark on our steps.

With the walk, came the first… hand in hand… pause in the middle of the woods… where we were able to let the quiet settle over us in the form of a breeze through the trees, and the finding of the ground beneath our feet.  Consider this:

The earth has a surface area of 196,950,000 Sq. miles.  Of that, the ground itself covers  57,510,000 Sq. miles.  

The universe is estimated to be 93 billion light years across. That is 879,847,933,950,014,400,000,000 km, or 546,712,159,497,257,716,145,164.8 miles. 

OR 

2,885,901,223,355,803,200,000,000,000 feet 

OR 

34,630,814,680,269,638,400,000,000,000 inches 

OR 

87,962,269,287,884,881,536,000,000,000 cm 

OR 

879,622,692,878,848,815,360,000,000,00… mm 

OR 

879,622,692,878,848,815,360,000,000,00… nm 

OR 

879,622,692,878,848,815,360,000,000,00… ym (yoctometers) 

OR 

879.8479339500144 Ym (Yottameters) 

and… once you get the light year measurements you can do almost anything with it.

For instance, if we were to lay unsharpened #2 pencils all the way across the universe it would take: 

4,617,441,957,369,285,120,000,000,000 of them. Yeah! 

And let’s try a battery. 

It would take: 

17,315,407,340,134,819,200,000,000,000 of them! 

If these were duracell AA batteries this would be: 

25,973,111,010,202,228,800,000,000,000 volts! 

That is enough to light: 
216,442,591,751,685,240,000,000,000 light bulbs! (If there was no resistance) 

Ok… that was random… and is probably off a bit… because, like love… the universe is always expanding and will never truly be measured… but…

All that to say… we are grateful for the couple of square feet that we can share holding each other under the trees in this little corner of the universe.  Happy spring.