For It Is Life

The following reflection was written by Amy Martin, the Moonlady. She sent it out on her alternative spirituality list, Moonlady News, which now has over 3000 members. She graciously gave permission to repost it here.

As a reminder, Winter SolstiCelebration is only three weeks away. I’ve had a part in the opening ritual the past two years – this year I’m going to serve as a wandering Druid.

Enjoy – and thank you Amy!

FOR IT IS LIFE
~ by Amy Martin

What did you think when you woke up this morning? When you walked outside to get the newspaper or let out the cat, did you take a moment to face the Sun which gives us the exact right amount of warmth and light? Did you breathe deep of the air, draw into your lungs atoms of oxygen, the same atoms that existed eons ago when mammals first drew their breath? When you spread the soft cream cheese across the rough and toasted surface of a sliced bagel, did you think of the thousands of years over kitchen fires that went into making everyday food that is artful in texture and taste?

“Look to this day,” goes a Sanskrit passage,”for it is life, the very life of life. In its brief course lie all the varieties and realities of existence: The bliss of growth. The glory of action. The splendor of beauty. For yesterday is already a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision. But today, well lived, makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope.”

Look to this day for it is life. The evolution of life on Earth has been no Darwinian march toward a pinnacle of development. It’s been erratic and unpredictable, full of twists and turns and backslides of fate. Millions of years ago, during the Cambrian era, thousands upon thousands of new animal species suddenly appeared. Most are now gone. What present-day survivors like ourselves share isn’t skill — for the saber-tooth tiger skillfully hunted its prey and itself into extinction — or survival of the fittest — for the dinosaurs were very fit until a sudden change of climate felled them — or even divine intervention — because there’s no logic to it. It was luck. One freak atmospheric event or genetic faux pas and Homo sapiens might have been just a blip in Earth’s history.

Rather than detract from the miracle of consciousness and the destiny to which it drives us, this view of evolution celebrates how precious it is to be alive and able to contemplate it. It proves how wonderful, simply wonderful, it is to have life. Against all odds, we are here. We should revel in the infinite paths that lie before us, and look to this day, for it is life.