What is your universe?

I once had occasion to interview astronaut James Lovell, commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13 space mission that was later relived in a movie starring Tom Hanks. I asked Lovell what his lasting memory was of his travels in space. As he answered, he held out his hand and put his thumb up toward his eye. "I looked out the window of the space capsule, put my thumb up like this ... and blocked out my view of the entire planet earth," he said.
It has always struck me that universe is in the eye of the beholder.
When I was a child, I lived in the Chicago suburbs. Not far from my home was a pedestrian bridge that spanned all the way across what is now the Eisenhower Expressway leading into Chicago. Sometimes I would walk to the middle of that bridge at night and look down at all the vehicles heading in both directions, all with headlights on. And I would think to myself, "All of those people are going somewhere. All have a destination. Some are happy. Some are sad. Some are mad. Some will reach their destinations; some won't. But at this moment, the thing they have in common is that they are all within my eyesight. They are in my universe." That image has remained with me all of my life.
Writers create universes. Sometimes they remember being caught up in their own, like Jim Lovell and that kid on the bridge in Illinois. What is your universe?