The journey of Light
Light has a way of humbling us. Imagine a planet sixty light-years away where something ordinary happens today — a child is born. In that moment, light carrying the imprint of that event begins its long journey outward. But the path it travels is far from smooth. It passes through dust, gas, gravity, collisions, and long stretches of emptiness. Much of it weakens, bends, or disappears. Only a small fraction keeps going.
If that surviving bit continues without being absorbed or rerouted, it will reach Earth sixty years later. And when it finally arrives, we’ll “see” the moment of the child’s birth — long after the child has lived an entire life. The truth we observe is real, but delayed. It’s simply the past arriving late.
Scientists often describe this journey in five stages:
The 5 Stages of Light’s Journey
- Origin — Light is created by an event.
- Interference — Dust and particles weaken the signal.
- Distortion — Gravity alters or bends its path.
- Obstruction — Barriers absorb or block parts of it.
- Visibility — Whatever survives finally reaches us.
Most of the light never completes the journey. We only see what makes it through. And while we easily accept this delay in the universe, we rarely notice how closely life follows the same pattern.
The Road to Recognition
Human recognition — whether of talent, discipline, or effort — moves through a similar process. A person begins something important to them: a craft, a skill, a role, a dream. That’s their origin. But recognition does not appear at the same moment as the work. It travels through people’s filters, doubts, distractions, and expectations. The journey of earning respect tends to move through five familiar stages:
The 5 Stages of Recognition
- Upahās — Mockery: The first reaction to anything new is often humour or ridicule. People laugh to stay comfortable.
- Upekṣā — Ignoring: When the novelty settles, indifference takes over. Effort goes unseen because attention is scarce.
- Tiraskār — Rejection: As the work grows harder to ignore, people start pushing back. Doubt, criticism, and resistance appear.
- Daman — Suppression: When someone keeps going, the environment tries to control, limit, or redirect them — intentionally or unintentionally.
- Samman — Respect: Only after all earlier reactions exhaust themselves does recognition arrive. By then, the real work is already in the past.
And just like with light, not every journey reaches the fifth stage. Many lose momentum during the ignoring phase. Some get worn down by rejection. Others burn out under pressure. Their signal weakens long before the world notices. Not because they lacked value, but because the journey is long and unpredictable.
By the time recognition finally appears, the work that earned it is usually years old. The visible moment is simply the delayed arrival of effort that matured quietly, long before anyone was watching.
Real-World Parallels
Robert Downey Jr. is often called an “overnight comeback.” But the discipline, rebuilding, and resilience that made Iron Man possible happened long before the world was willing to see it.
The same with Michael Phelps. His medals are visible. The years of early morning training sessions — even on birthdays and holidays — were not. By the time the world recognised him, the athlete who deserved recognition had already been built.
In both cases, recognition didn’t match the timeline of effort. It simply arrived late — just like light.
Where the Two Journeys Meet
Place the journey of light next to the journey of recognition and the symmetry becomes clear. Both begin with an origin. Both weaken as they move. Both face conditions that bend, distort, or block them. Both depend on survival. And both appear long after they begin.
We see a star long after it has changed. We admire a person long after they’ve grown. We respect someone long after their discipline is forged. We understand someone long after their experiences have shaped them.
Visibility is always the final step, never the first. What reaches us — whether starlight or recognition — is only the part that survives the long journey.
A Quiet Closing
The important thing to remember is that we are almost always seeing truths from the past. Even the fastest thing we know — light — reaches us late. If that’s how the galaxy works at a fundamental level, then the time something takes is simply the distance it has to travel and the obstacles it must cross before becoming visible.
Human journeys aren’t very different. If you feel delayed, off-track, or slower than you hoped, it may only mean that your path is longer or the environment around you is more complex. Every scatter, every deflection, every interruption can send a signal into a different direction altogether — sometimes toward an unexpected destination, sometimes toward conditions we don’t fully understand, and sometimes into worlds as unfamiliar as a black hole.
But that doesn’t make the journey any less valid. It simply means your trajectory is shaped by the forces around you, just as light is shaped by gravity, dust, and distance.
Light doesn’t stop because the route is uncertain. And the journey doesn’t end just because the arrival takes time.
It makes me wonder where else this pattern may be emerging — and where it might already be at work without us realising it.
Quiet Reflections 