Molecular

Hey, friends! I’ve been seeing a lot of new faces around here these past few days—if you’ve recently found your way here (perhaps from my Rabbit Room article?), WELCOME! You can find a full introduction post here and get to know me a little more. Or email me and let’s chat!

Yes, I know—but don’t let the welter of the world
Dull the keen-eyed edge of what your breath is worth—
Alive. Taste that word, and let it shine
In all its flavors, wonder-wine
Upon your tongue. How can it be,
That I, a negative one-billionth probability,
Am blinking at the sky today?
My cells in all their orderly array,
And lungs and heart the life-word still obey,
Set into molecular mystery,
I live here, at this address in history,
And even this is not the gift to be—
A creature of the now, and of eternity. 

If we’re going to consider what miracles we've experienced in our lives, we should start with the first one: the fact that we're here at all. When I think about the vast array of cause and effect that stretches back into the murkiness of deep time and webs out on all sides into linked events I can't possibly enumerate, I'm absolutely dazzled by the fact that my life, or your life, or any of our lives, came to be. I tend, and maybe you do too, to behave as if my life is a guarantee—but it's not, and the mere fact of my birth is a grand and humbling gift. That makes me think a little more about what I do with the time I am here. If unknown grace brushed aside all those incalculable odds and placed me here anyway—what can I do to repay some of my gratitude?

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