Welcome to Let It Be Easy with Susie Moore.

I have another gorgeous story for you today from Ticknut Hans book, At Home in the World,

Lessons from a Remarkable Life. And it's called the Astronaut.

This is a good one.

It really made me pause, think, put down my book, look at the sky.

Here goes.

Imagine an astronaut going to the moon.

After he lands on the moon, something goes wrong with a spacecraft and he can't blast off again to return to planet Earth.

At NASA mission control in Houston, they're unable to contact him.

He knows he only has enough oxygen to last a short time, not enough time for people to come and rescue him.

In those last moments of his life, what do you think he thinks about?

What does he want?

On the moon, it's not possible to walk mindfully like we do on Earth.

All you can do is jump because there's so little gravity.

Perhaps the astronaut remembers how beautiful

it is on Earth. When we look up at the Moon from the Earth, we may think the Moon is so beautiful,

but if we're on the Moon and looking back at Earth, we see Earth's magnificence. We have lived on

this planet for so many years, and yet have we truly been in touch

with the wonders of life on Earth? I think this all the time, by the way. We argue with one

person, we're jealous of another, we run after this and chase after that, and we become blind

to the beauty all around us. We don't realize what a miracle it is to be able to walk

on this beautiful planet. If the astronauts stranded on the moon were asked what he would like most of all,

...