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A supernova remnant about 20,000 light years from Earth.
(Smithsonian Institution) |
Every single day, I leave little pieces of me behind. Parts of my body are shed as it creates new life within me. Skin cells, hair, mucus, and yes, even the excrement that was once inside of me, leave me and return to the earth. These bits and pieces that I leave behind are a tiny fraction of the recycling of life that occurs on the planet each moment of every day. And the dust that I become is a resource for other life. Small creatures like dust mites consume the dead skin that I shed, and microorganisms thankfully break down the waste I produce.
Without the help of detritivores and decomposers we would be quickly consumed by piles of our own dust and waste, and that of the other creatures we share the planet with. It's quite beautiful how it all works out so that we can carry on.
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Dust mites feed on organic detritus such
as flakes of shed human skin and flourish
in the stable environment of dwellings.
(Wikipedia) |
Each particle of dust that we shed, taken alone, is incapable of thought or feeling. And, if we lose a larger part of ourselves through accident, that part can't stand alone and philosophize about the meaning of life or the promise of afterlife. The bodies we occupy one day will turn to dust entirely. And each particle is entirely incapable of doing anything more than occupying the earth as matter, energy. The matter remains "alive" in that it nourishes another life, a life that is perhaps more important than we like to admit. The consumers of humanity are the flies, dust mites, bacteria and fungus, which humans generally have come to disdain.
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Earth Rise as Seen From Lunar Surface
(NASA) |
For me, this is enough, the beautiful eternity of the cycle of life is all I need to know before I die. After all, before I was born, my consciousness was nothing, and every day bits of me return to a lack of conscious being. One day, I
will die, and my body will disperse its energy into the world. There is no single cell of my body that can contain my thoughts and feelings, and there will be an end to "me." It is such an amazing miracle that I will return to the dust from which I came, but in between I have been given the gift of my body and mind on this perfect planet circling our perfect sun in our galaxy in space.
