AGE

­­WORDS LIKE LIGHT 

Monday, May 9, 2022

           I am legally 80 years old, but according to an astrophysicist friend of mine, I’ve been around for billions of years. In fact, I’m not just a senior citizen, but a truly ancient guy, as old as the stars. Scientific studies say that my body is composed of approximately 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms, most of which, my friend tells me, came into being when giant stars exploded several billion years ago. Apparently these atoms browsed around the universe for eons before they somehow assembled and settled together in 1941 to produce an arrangement that became known as ‘Hamilton Salsich’. Who knows — some of my atoms might have made up parts of prehistoric mountains or the kidney of a king or a wee shrew’s eyes before they luckily linked up to bring a baby to life in St. Louis 80 years ago. What’s equally amazing is that some studies suggest that the 37 trillion cells in my body are replaced with brand new ones about every ten years, which means, unless I’m missing something, that my body is now only about 10 years old. If I understand this correctly, I’ve been around for billions of years, but am still just a 10-year-old kid. I’m ancient, but still – literally – in the springtime of life!

BRAND NEW

In every moment, life is clean and new.
All winds are young with love and energy,
and peacefulness and strength flow softly through
the world. Each moment is both feathery 

and brave. You reach out for its gift and find 
that fearless life is always freely yours.
The newness of each hour is always kind, 
and every moment opens all the doors. 

So make a promise  to the winds and stars
that you will love the freshness of your days.
New birth is always yours and mine and ours.
Each hour is filled with liveliness and praise 

for everything. Its newness comes to give 
us love, so why not laugh, and truly live?

And here are two short videos from this morning’s walk…

… chimes in the Peace Sanctuary overlooking the Mystic River …

… and a babbling spring stream on Bindloss Road …