Gratitude

The Internet is awash with memes on how astoundingly immense the universe is, and how astoundingly unlikely it is for any planet to exist that sustains life, let alone advanced life that can pay taxes and eat fugu. Yet here we are. We’ve won a lottery beyond imagination, but that’s not the half of it, or even one-quintillionth of it, to the power of a million quintillions. What’s more, how likely is it that any of us are even born, given the 300 million sperm cells swimming up the fallopian tube at the one right moment when a single egg receives a single sperm cell and gives birth to the single one of us? To one you. To one me. Each of us is immensely fortunate to be alive, and immensely fortunate that our planet even exists for us to be alive in. This incomprehensible comprehension overwhelms me with gratitude.

                a soap bubble popping

                on fresh-cut grass

                another in the breeze