Sunday, July 25, 2010

We and many other animals


". . . We and many other animals sleep and wake in cycles that repeat every twenty-four hours. Some ocean protists, dinomastigotes, luminesce when dusk comes, ceasing two hours later. So hooked are they into the cosmic rhythm of Earth that even back in the laboratory, away from the sea, they know the sun has set. Many similar examples abound because living matter is not an island but part of the cosmic matter around it, dancing to the beat of the universe.

Life is a material phenomenon so finely tuned and nuanced to its cosmic domicile that the relatively minor shift of angle and temperature change as the tilted Earth moves in its course around the sun is enough to alter life’s mood, to bring on or silence the song of bird, bullfrog, cricket and circada. But the steady background beat of Earth turning and orbiting in its cosmic environment provides more than a metronome for daily and seasonal lives. Larger rhythms, more difficult to discern, can also be heard. . . "


from What is Life?
Lynn Margulis & Dorion Sagan
Pg. 240 & 241


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Speaking of rhythms, I'm stepping outside my usual ones tomorrow and flying up to Wellington to celebrate my daughter's 25th birthday. . . Joy! I'll stay up there for a week and hope there may be an opportunity to meet one or two of our fellow bloggers (Mary? Tim?) while I'm pottering about in their city.

Alisaundre was all curiosity, knowing and dark, smoky blue eyes when she was born. It's incredible to me that she's turning twenty-five; so much life lived and so much yet to unfold... I was her age when she was born! On Tuesday I'll post a photograph and a poem I wrote for her when she was seven years old and "heaven had a lime-green sky."

XO


7 comments:

  1. Enjoy the wonderful diversion, Claire. I look forward to reading the poem and seeing that photo.

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  2. Thank you, Elizabeth. It's going to be a relaxing break and special to have the time with my dear daughter. She's about to turn the age I was when she was born, so this is one of those 'once-in-a-lifetime' scenarios when she will be half my age/I will be (just about - in three weeks time!) double hers - which feels somehow significant. L, C

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  3. Ah, happy birthday to your -- I'm certain of it -- lovely daughter!

    Didn't you blink and she went from seven to twenty-five? I met my two sons downtown Seattle last week for lunch, and at first glance, wondered who were those two handsome young men walking up to me?!

    Have a wonderful week.

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  4. Oh, T - I've had exactly this happen to me! They're entirely familiar, of course, but I still pinch myself sometimes when I come across my offspring by surprise. One sees the babe, the young child and the grown man/woman in one gaze. How do they go from seven to twenty five in almost no time at all?
    I passed your birthday wished on to Alisaundre (who says 'thank you' - as do I.)
    L, Cx

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  6. Hi Maria - thanks for visiting and for your supportive comments. I will look into the link you have suggested. All the best, Claire

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