Seven Thousand Trillion Trillion

Seven thousand trillion trillion: 

there's approximately 7x10^27 atoms right now lending themselves to the appearance of our bodies, that's seven thousand trillion trillion atoms. That's a lot. About one-ten thousandths of a second after the Big Bang the earliest particles appeared in the newly created universe, protons and neutrons formed and then soon stuck together to construct atomic nuclei, our earliest of elements hydrogen and helium. After hundreds of thousands of years electrons found their way to bond to this nuclei and the first complete atoms came to exist. That's our origin story, literally the creation of time and expanse of space tells us who truly we are, or at least the seven thousand trillion upon trillion atoms that right now express themselves as our appearance. 

 imagine all the things that those atoms must have been before we the scene, from first stars to the primordial mix of earliest earth and then single celled life, we are constructed from the very same material as pre-historic creatures that once roamed the land, our atoms were once part of ancient forests, wild seas, and eventually those ancestors of first human life. We've been everything and after this brief appearance now we'll continue on as something other once again. 

and even more amazing, consider the possibilities of what those atoms could have been, that our existence wasn't guaranteed to be exactly as it is, of seven thousand trillion trillion atoms we could have been anything at all - and yet here we are. 

gifted from the Big Bang. 

it seems to me that the universe has always been evolving, that it wasn't just early life that grew in complexity and self-awareness, but that the universe itself has sought ways of emerging as new expressions, constantly arranging primordial matter in creative displays of its potential. Perhaps the Big Bang was simply another canvas in an endless show of curiosity and wonder. Our seven thousand trillion, trillion atoms are only a fraction of this order, barely a sand grain along an infinite beach of creation - our bodies being a temporary arrangement of possibilities, a brief appearance before we continue on as another unique expression of existence. So we are actually more than a collection of seven thousand trillion trillion atoms, much more...

we are the universe itself,

through every possible display. 

~

Peace, Eric