Tag Archives: Evolutionary time

Deep Time

In the time before Time
when Earth was raw
and Life was beginning…
Can you imagine that far back?

It might be good for your perspective 
to try
It might help reduce 
the angst that you feel
in your body

You know what I’m talking about.

A science teacher once told me
that if you stand with you arms
outstretched
And consider the timeline
of earth’s formation this way -

Say the birth of our planet happens 
at the tip 
of the middle finger 
of your left hand
and all the eons of growing and
developing occur along the timeline
of your outstretched arms;

then the life of humans on Earth
from the dawn of us until now,
on that same timeline,
would occupy just the tip 
of the fingernail 
of the middle finger
of your right hand.

All that history has preceded us,
and Earth will survive with or without us.
There are no guarantees.
But we have evolved in the way that
Earth’s energy has 
of moving life forward

We are an extension of 
and dependent on 
this world around us 

That’s it. That’s all there is.
And you can absorb that in a way
that makes you feel small 
and insignificant,
Or you can revel in the
beauty of it -
being connected to and
dependent on such an awesome planet.

The choice is up to you.

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Filed under Prose and Poetry