The cosmic easter egg theory
Life used to feel like an adventure. Now it’s just… meetings. Let’s fix that.
If the world’s been feeling a little more meh, a little less alive lately,
you're not imagining it.
And you're definitely not alone.
This is for anyone who's been wondering where the wonder went.
And how to find it again.
A story about awe and hidden treasure.
Somewhere along the way, the world didn’t stop being magical.
We just stopped noticing.
Sometimes you just need a reminder.
A ladybug landed on my notebook today, right on the margin between sense and nonsense. For a split second, I was sure it was judging my terrible handwriting.
Or my mediocre ideas.
This little red dot, with its own cosmic purpose (I guess), concerned with my penmanship?
Absurd. Why. Weird.
I mean, of course I was just projecting (classic overthinker here).
But, there we were.
Two very different lifeforms sharing the same slice of existence.
Briefly intersecting, for no apparent reason at all.
And isn't that just how life works? One moment you're making your way through another mundane day, struggling to form a unique thought.
And the next, something small and unexpected reminds you that reality is pretty damn weird.
Weird is usually where the good stuff hides anyways.
Every once in a while, life glitches. It slips outside of its day to day rails, and we get a glimpse of something bigger than ourselves.
A sort of blip.
That’s at least how I feel sometimes.
I felt it when I watched My Octopus Teacher just a few days earlier.
A man.
A sea creature.
A tender bond between the two I never thought possible.
I was unexpectedly overwhelmed, yet humbled. Immediately captivated.
Goosebumps.
It somehow felt like receiving a secret gift from the universe.
Like finding a cosmic Easter Egg.
A reminder of life’s interconnectedness, weirdness and out-of-our comprehensiveness.
My favourite kind of face slap.
Awe.
Sometimes they’re tricky to find, other times they’re hiding in plain sight, just waiting for someone to pay attention.
Awe, often described as the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends our understanding of the world, has been studied by western psychologists and neuroscientists for about two decades now.
The general conclusion?
Awe is basically life’s most sacred kind of WTF.
It's the thrill of discovery.
The moment we stumble upon fragments of marvel and feel the universe whisper, “Here’s a piece of my story.”
Yeah, call me pretentious if it brightens your day ✨
But I like to imagine that the universe is a vast, ancient storyteller.
Scattering cosmic Easter Eggs everywhere, and nowhere, to be found.
Footnotes to a +13.8 billion-year narrative worth humble bragging about.
I remember staying at a Bedouin camp in the Omani desert.
The endless starry skies felt like the universe had pulled back the curtain just a little, just enough to peek backstage.
And it was kind of glorious.
I lay there in the sand, doing nothing but staring up.
And it felt like the whole universe was exhaling.
There was no agenda, no epiphany.
Just presence.
And that was enough.
Some cosmic Easter Eggs are quiet like that.
Just asking you to show up, look up and shut up.
Still, enough to leave us wanting more.
But of course, awe needs to be carefully dosed.
Too much at once, and we’d all just OD on it.
A collective, global collapse into a puddle of stardust and goosebumps!
Suboptimal.
Rather, these measured revelations might be there for us to simply
notice,
marvel,
and remember we’re lucky to be tagging along for the ride.
They’re our invitations to a different point of view.
The plot twists that keep things interesting.
What is incredibly annoying though, is how quickly their effects wear off.
It’s like human brains are coated in emotional Teflon™ - wonder just slides right off!
Imagine showing up at work in a perpetual state of awe.
We’d all be too busy gaping at the cosmic splendour of existence to be bothered about responding to emails and chasing deadlines.
Or fixing the printer.
The world as we know it would basically end.
Awe can't be baseline.
If awe lasted forever, it wouldn’t be awe.
It’s meant to slip through our fingers, so we keep chasing it.
Or at least keep an eye out.
When we forget to look for it, we end up experiencing it less.
And when we experience it less, it’s as if life loses its colours.
For many of us, our childhoods were filled with awe.
We recall seemingly endless summers, the great anticipation of Christmas eve, or bursting with excitement finally going to that amusement park.
🎢
Life felt like 4K Ultra HD, with all the colours turned up to 11 out of 10.
Adulting on the other hand, has a tendency to wash the colour from the very fabric of reality.
Ugh.
Now, instead of marvelling at the stars, we’re stuck marvelling at spreadsheets.
Trading the wonder of a wide-open sky for the flicker of a fluorescent-lit office.
No wonder we're fed up.
By the time we're adults, we’ve experienced a lifetime’s worth of firsts.
First snowfall.
First kiss.
First heartbreak.
First rainbow.
First time realising the stars you're looking at might already be dead.
But firsts are finite.
The great awes of life that come served on a silver platter? Already checked off.
So now what.
Do we live out the next 50+ years simply crossing days off a calendar?
We got used to wonder showing up at our doorstep without asking for it.
But what if it is still there, and we're just the ones that closed the door?
What if we chose, again, to approach the world with the openness, curiosity, and sense of wonder we had when we were little?
Maybe life would once again start feeling big.
Up for a cosmic Easter Egg hunt?
Amazing. Me too.
But first, a little preparation.
Your first challenge is to unpack three qualities you were born with, but might have lately set aside:
Playfulness. Presence. Openness.
In other words:
- Meet experiences with play, not just reason.
- Be where you are, not where your mind drifts.
- Stay open to the unknown, don't hide behind certainty.
Master these, and you’re halfway there.
The rest?
It’s knowing where to look.
And lucky for us, games have been teaching us that part all along.
How to play: The cosmic Easter Egg hunt
Achievement unlocked: cosmic explorer mode activated.
Welcome, wanderer.
(Or wonderer. Forgive me.)
Your mission, should you choose to accept it:
Seek the wonders of this world.
Those anticipated marvels, sprinkled across the ordinary, the grand, and the unexpected.
Prepare your senses.
Here's your field guide:
The main quest may move you forward,
but aimless exploration unlocks new worlds.
You’ve got to roam a little. Take detours.
Ignore the blinking arrows for once.
Peek behind waterfalls, climb that steep hill ahead.
Turn rocks on their heads, venture into the enchanted forest.
Open that book of spells.
Curiosity is the ultimate cheat code.
2. Pay attention to the details
Some Easter Eggs thrive in the tiniest pixel.
Rest in the mundane petals of a single flower.
They shine through a stranger’s unexpected act of kindness.
Shimmer in the perfect geometry of a spider’s web at sunrise.
Magic doesn't always show up epicly rendered.
You may have to catch it in the glitch, disguised as unimportant.
That's very much a feature, not a bug.
3. Push the boundaries
Sometimes you must challenge the edges -
of maps, of walls, of what you think you know.
Great things hide just beyond the borders of certainty.
Explore the ruins from lost civilisations.
Imagine forgotten temples rising again in your mind.
Wade into uncharted tide pools to see what’s hiding there.
Sit, intentionally, under the oldest, gnarliest tree and just listen.
Press strange buttons just to see what happens.
The universe rewards those who dare to play differently.
4. Wander together, wonder together
Never underestimate the power of a guild.
Discoveries come alive when wanderers cross paths.
Sharing stories around the campfire, singing songs and joining hands.
Marching together towards a new day.
Moving as one for a moment, feeling what it’s like to move as a whole.
Don’t neglect the NPCs, nor the other players.
They hold keys to the shared wonders of this world.
5. Stay persistent and patient
Not every Easter Egg appears on the first try.
Or the fifth.
Sometimes you need to revisit places with new tools.
Or a new perspective.
Stay curious. Keep wandering. Trust the journey.
Nobody dictates when the Northern lights shine,
or the stars shoot across the skies.
They appear on their own time, not yours.
They show up when you least expect them.
But only if you're still playing.
6. Consult the ancients
Sometimes you must search deep in the archives.
Seek out old scrolls and dusty treasures.
Wizards who walk among us.
Wisdom waits for those with the courage to meet it.
To make sense of life, death, and the mysteries in between,
you’ll need more than questions.
You’ll need a map.
The ancients drew one.
Start there.
The good stuff’s in the side quests
So… will you always find awe when you go looking for it?
Probably not. But maybe that’s not the point.
Maybe the point is just to show up.
As a curious, free-roaming player in a weird, but beautiful world.
Not obsessing over inventory. Not rushing to the final boss.
But balancing at the edges of the map.
Pressing buttons just to see what happens.
Wandering off the path on purpose.
Awe isn’t meant to be permanent.
It’s more like a power-up: it cracks you open, just a little.
Lets just enough starlight in to make you feel a part of it all.
Then slips away, like it was never there.
But it was.
So go.
Wander wide.
Talk to the NPCs and the wizards.
Kick weird rocks and gaze up.
Accept the side quest.
Happy hunting, cosmic explorer 🥚✨
Just a theory.
Thank you for reading ✨
What’s your take? Let’s chat in the comments! 💬
P.S. Check out The guide to cosmic Easter Eggs for ultimate cheats on where to find wonder IRL 🌍✨
☕️ Keep me caffeinated
So I can keep scribbling into the void, but coherently.
Because writing is 1% deep thoughts, 5% impostor syndrome, and 94% caffeine.
