How can the human mind possibly begin to know the flickering light of creation and destruction? Everything on this earth exists with the certainty of a life impermanent. Yet they have no memories of their birth, and no understanding of their death, and cannot know either.

We are born, but do not remember it, and we die, and cannot tell the tale.

We were bred to fear the unknown, and death perhaps is the ultimate unknowable thing.

If there is a god, perhaps his greatest gift to us was ignorance of our own end. For that, I am eternally grateful. Alive, the world seems bristling with possibility. I am capable of anything. Like a flatlander who has never looked Up, the world I live in feels limitless.

I do not believe in a God. What I do believe in is the power of the human mind to utilize a Godly idea to bring fulfillment and joy to His people. If that God can carry us to a place in this life where our termination holds no fear, then He has served His ultimate purpose.

Maybe someday I will know that god. Maybe he will tell me to be strong, to life fully, to love wholeheartedly, to fill my life with joy and suffering and impossibility and wonder and grace.

Until then, I will struggle, with love, to understand for just one true moment, the miracle of one breath.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.