I take a look outside

Look at the sky

Look at the clouds

Look at the grass and trees and flowers

Look at the birds and insects

 

Now I close my eyes and breathe

I listen as the air enters and leaves my lungs

I listen to the wind

I listen to the chatter

I feel the sun warm my skin

Feel the air move around me

Feel the earth beneath my feet

Feel the gravity

Feel my heart beating

Feel the blood run through my veins

 

Once I’ve taken these things in

I open my eyes.

This is what it is to live

to exist

to be eternal

Everything I am, with the exception of my consciousness, is eternal.

I have always been

and I always will be

 

According to the Law of Conservation of Matter

matter is neither

created

Nor destroyed

It is only changed from one form to another

All the matter that makes up my body

Has always been a part of this world

And as far as I know

It always will be

 

Every atom of my being

Has traveled the globe

Survived everything that time has thrown at it

Been a part of many other living beings

And somehow wound up

Being a part of me

 

If atoms could communicate

Imagine the stories they could tell!

Part of me may have once been a mountain

A dinosaur

A king

It’s incredible!

 

Though the physical form I hold now will one day be but a memory

And some day

Probably forgotten completely

My bones will forever mark my existence here on earth

 

Even after my

Flesh

And blood

Are eaten by worms

And dispersed back into the world

My bones will stay as they are

They will make my life undeniably real

They will be my stamp

My life’s seal

My footprint on the sands of time

 

If people discover my bones in the future

They will wonder who I was

What kind of person I was

How I chose to live my amazing little gift

Called life

And the fun

Will be to let them wonder

 

The only part of me

That will ever truly die

Is my consciousness

But that’s okay

 

I am a miracle to even be able to comprehend life

The fact that humans

Are the most intelligent creatures on earth

And that I,

In an incredible improbability

Was born one

Is astonishing

 

I am so rare

And unique

And amazing

And it took me far too long to realize it

 

I can think

And understand

And learn

And do

And live as I wish

And I used to take it for granted

 

It doesn’t matter if I won’t be remembered in a hundred years

I am alive now

And that’s enough

 

Every living thing eventually dies

Plants will stop providing for their cells and wither away

Animals’ and humans’ organs will stop working

And their consciousness will cease to exist

Their bodies will decay

 

The human idea of life is like a

Single grain

Of sand on a beach

Or one blink

Of the eye in someone’s whole lifetime

 

I am so small

And fragile

Yet at the same time

So big and untouchable

I am insignificant, yet amazing

I am simple, yet so incredibly complicated

I am temporary, yet forever

I feel, and I create

I love, and I hate

I give

I take

I cherish

I forget

I experience pain and love and contentment and greed

I am a hero

I am a villain

I laugh

I cry

I want

And I refuse

I was born

And I will die

I am human

And that is beautiful

I live

I exist

And I am eternal