Albert Einstein, Norovirus, and the Lessons We Don’t See Coming
Last night, as I flipped through a book I was reading, I stumbled upon a quote by Albert Einstein that made me pause: “We still do not know one-thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.” My first reaction? A very dorky but heartfelt “tru dat, Einstein.”
That little nugget of wisdom hit differently because lately, I’ve been feeling restless, ungrounded, and pulled in a million directions. Throw in a bout of norovirus—maybe the universe’s way of hitting my pause button and forcing me to focus on self-care—and it’s been a lot. But it’s more than that, I feel. That quote kept revealing itself to me during meditation this morning, pulling me deeper into reflection.
It had me asking: How much do I really know myself? Not in the surface-level, “I’m a kind person” way, but in the “Girl… who are you?” kind of way. You know the vibe.
Walking this spiritual path and having had some truly profound (and sometimes downright unimaginable) experiences, I’ve learned a lot. Yet right now, in this moment, I find myself carrying the weight of the world. As an empath, that weight feels amplified—a sadness I can’t seem to shake and an unrelenting desire to somehow fix the collective heaviness of our world, even as part of me wants to run away from it all. I am just me.
If you’ve been feeling the same way, let me just say: you’re not alone.
This morning, in an attempt to quiet my mind (emphasis on attempt), I sat with all of it—the restlessness, the sadness, the questions. The silence didn’t last long, but my guides managed to get through with something beautiful:
Be the observer, not the absorber.
I’ve heard this phrase before, but it was definitely needed to be remembered.
You don’t have to be an empath to feel like the world’s pain is unbearable sometimes. It’s so easy to soak in the negativity, the cruelty, and the division and carry it all like it’s yours to fix. But here’s the thing: we can feel the weight without letting it consume us.
During this meditation, I had a vision. A tiny seed was placed in my hand—so small I could barely see it. As I looked up, I was standing in a vibrant, lush forest. It was a reminder of Einstein’s words: there’s so much we don’t know, so much nature has yet to reveal to us. And in that moment, I realized: it only takes one tiny seed of love, compassion, or hope to grow something magnificent.
We may not be able to heal the world overnight, but we can start with what’s in front of us. We can plant seeds, even if they feel tiny and insignificant.
When I think back to that vision, I’m reminded that the seed wasn’t about fixing everything at once. It was about hope. It was about starting small, trusting the process, and letting nature do its thing.
So, let’s plant some hope today, shall we? Maybe it’s compassion. Maybe it’s simply the decision to keep going. Whatever it is, trust that it matters.
Because you matter.
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