9

too bright to look at, too fast to fully see. we wait in trepidation for the thunder’s call to let us know the lightning was actually there.

if life flashes before our eyes, what do we wait for? Is the moment just before death takes us the echo that we can actually feel? How can we know life is real without death to finish it?

Time slows down in that fatal moment, and life is relived.

Or do we shy away from the vitality, unable to cope, our senses incapable of processing? So eyes close for a moment that could be forever, but that’s no different than any other time. Except for the realization that this may be it.

Yet we still instinctively keep our eyes closed, holding onto life while rejecting the reality of it at the same time.

Death is too pure a form of life to accept, to handle, to see.

And then the moment passes, and the blood pulses in your ears, reminding you of living. But an echo of life. Or of death.

We wait in trepidation for life’s call, to let us know that death is really there.

We wait in trepidation for death’s call, to let us know that life is really there.

10

Did the birds actually quiet themselves in the presence of thunder, or did the thunder overpower their voices?

Believing in an explanation for everything.
Believing in a creator, that there isn’t necessarily an explanation.
Fundamentally different, but aren’t they the same?
I don’t know the explanation for everything, I must have faith that there is.
The explanation could end up being a creator.
I’m not talking about people who dismiss evidence in favor of a holy being.
But the things that we don’t yet know how to explain.
Yet we believe in an explanation, as some believe in creation.

Can a water droplet splash more water than itself? I don’t think so. Perhaps an equal amount.

What then is the weight of a human being, if we make splashes in the sea of humanity?

We touch countless others, pushing some more and less. When the ripple fades, that is the extent of our reach.

But although a splash returns to its source, eventually, does a ripple ever truly disappear? No. The splash is the impact of our arrival, and the ripple is our continued difference.

The splash is our displacement in the order of things.

We displace some when we arrive, yet the cup slowly fills with more of us.

and eventually space will run out.

space on earth, or the universe?

—february twothousandzerohundredsthirteen