I recently read Orbital by Samantha Harvey, and I can't stop thinking about it. It's not an action-packed space adventure—it's quiet, reflective, and beautifully written, focusing on the rhythms of life in orbit. Instead of high-stakes drama, it lingers on the small, ordinary moments that make up an astronaut's day: eating, exercising, fixing things, staring out the window at Earth. It captures something that feels both surreal and deeply human at the same time.

One of the things that stuck with me is how astronauts don't see borders from space. From orbit, there are no dividing lines, no countries—just beauty; oceans, clouds, and landmasses stretching endlessly into one another. The planet looks whole, fragile, and stunningly alive. It made me wonder about the things we think matter—borders, politics, the way we separate ourselves—they are all just things we've made up to divide us.

And yet, even in a place that strips away those divisions, astronauts still rely on structure. They circle the Earth 16 times a day, watching the sun rise and set on fast-forward, crossing entire continents in minutes. It should feel limitless, untethered—like drifting through a dream. But to live in it, they follow routine: cleaning filters, maintaining equipment, logging data, exercising. Sound familiar? That's what we do as humans—when faced with something vast and unknowable, we carve out familiarity. Even in space, life is measured in tasks, in rhythms, in the ordinary things that make the extraordinary feel like home.

One line from Orbital stuck with me: "You go to space to see the universe, but what you end up looking at is yourself." There's something about being so far away from Earth that forces astronauts to reflect on their place in it.

Reading Orbital had the same affect on me...

If even space can become routine, how often do we let the extraordinary slip into the background here on Earth? What would it take to see our world with the same sense of awe an astronaut feels when they look back at it from orbit?

Buy Orbital by Samantha Harvey from bookshop.org.