Do you ever stop and wonder how and why you, in your specific form, exist? Consider the decades of ancestors you follow.
Lewis Thomas's book, The Lives of a Cell, deals with the probabilities of our existence and its amazements. I recommend it to everyone.
What if one ancestor missed a connection with another; meeting death instead of that connection. Or they did not find the connection in the first place. Without those connections through the generations, I would not have an opportunity to write these musings.
I agree with Thomas that we should remain in a "dazzlement" at our presence on this earth. We need to awaken each morning dizzy with gratitude.
Why do so many feel entitlement and not responsibility for their actions? How have individuals lost the desire to delve into and dwell in the amazement of the natural world?
How can we take anything for granted?
Years ago I wrote a poem after a day of those "terrible trifles." Through the poem I moved into a feel of the dazzle!
Darwin's Notions
When morning presents a dead battery,
or my shoe pulls up gum before I arrive
"on the dot" at the canceled meeting,
I take a breath. Then I march on.
I’ve hitchhiked in cells of ancestors,
as they survived disease, famine and war.
Always the magnets of egg and sperm
collided in time. Whew, I'm here!
A click of virtue or coy regret along the way . . . and no me.
I’d like to think I’ve tripped inside mitochondria of wild ones,
defiants who left comfort to commit experience.
I remember when she tied her life up with stars
in a foggy sky. Chased wind
with daisies and bits of straw in her hair.
Barefoot, she focused on breathing.
Waited for the click, at the right time.
- Penny Wilkes
In her book, Green Space. Green Time, Connie Barlow writes, "Our star system was born of a colliding outwash of exploding stars. We now know that every element on earth and in our bodies was created in a supernova that blew up in this sector of the galaxy some five billion years ago."
We arise from reworked stardust and should exist in a state of wonder. Take time today to acknowledge it and write your stardust dreams.
Share your dazzle!
Lewis Thomas's book, The Lives of a Cell, deals with the probabilities of our existence and its amazements. I recommend it to everyone.
What if one ancestor missed a connection with another; meeting death instead of that connection. Or they did not find the connection in the first place. Without those connections through the generations, I would not have an opportunity to write these musings.
I agree with Thomas that we should remain in a "dazzlement" at our presence on this earth. We need to awaken each morning dizzy with gratitude.
Why do so many feel entitlement and not responsibility for their actions? How have individuals lost the desire to delve into and dwell in the amazement of the natural world?
How can we take anything for granted?
Years ago I wrote a poem after a day of those "terrible trifles." Through the poem I moved into a feel of the dazzle!
Darwin's Notions
When morning presents a dead battery,
or my shoe pulls up gum before I arrive
"on the dot" at the canceled meeting,
I take a breath. Then I march on.
I’ve hitchhiked in cells of ancestors,
as they survived disease, famine and war.
Always the magnets of egg and sperm
collided in time. Whew, I'm here!
A click of virtue or coy regret along the way . . . and no me.
I’d like to think I’ve tripped inside mitochondria of wild ones,
defiants who left comfort to commit experience.
I remember when she tied her life up with stars
in a foggy sky. Chased wind
with daisies and bits of straw in her hair.
Barefoot, she focused on breathing.
Waited for the click, at the right time.
- Penny Wilkes
In her book, Green Space. Green Time, Connie Barlow writes, "Our star system was born of a colliding outwash of exploding stars. We now know that every element on earth and in our bodies was created in a supernova that blew up in this sector of the galaxy some five billion years ago."
We arise from reworked stardust and should exist in a state of wonder. Take time today to acknowledge it and write your stardust dreams.
Share your dazzle!
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