Thoughts on My Lucky Day

On the dawn of my 68th birthday, Kathleen and I were headed to the gym to work out. Heading into town, we passed an intersection where a school bus was signalling to turn right into our lane. We passed it before it could turn.

"We were fortunate to pass by that bus, or we'd be following it all the way into town," I said.

"Maybe this is going to be a lucky day."

"I think it is. A lucky day."

Fortunate. Lucky. I felt lucky to be alive. Each day I wake up and realize that I'm still alive and get to live another day on this planet, I'm filled with feelings of gratitude.

And the older I get, the more I appreciate the wonder of it all. The amazing good fortune that our moon was formed when a small planet collided with Earth billions of years ago. The Earth's crust, such as it was back then, was all blown into outer space, and the debris that didn't fall back into Earth's gravity went into orbit to aggregate into the big lump that became our moon. The glancing blow also added mass and a spinning motion to our molten core. This enhanced the electromagnetic field, which shields us from the deadly solar radiation that rains down on us every day. Allowing life to thrive. And the moon became big enough to hold the earth steady in its rotation, practically eliminating a dramatic wobble that would have made earth climate totally chaotic. Allowing life to thrive. Lucky to have such a moon.

Lucky to be one of the survivors, an evolved sentient human being, who can understand the wonder of the moon, and feel lucky and appreciative.

The amazing good fortune of the huge asteroid that struck the Earth causing a mass extinction on the planet. No longer a dinosaur dominated world. Mammals and other small animals were able to hide and survive and eventually thrive. My ancestors from 65 million years ago. Thank you, asteroid. How fortunate for me, because I'm here now having a lucky day.

Lucky to survive close brushes with death in Vietnam, not to mention on the mad highways of the U.S.

Lucky to still be healthy.

Lucky to be married to the love of my life.

Lucky to have another chance to hold my head above the superstition, hatred, murder, domination, pain, lies and nonsense that are the primary themes of human civilization in these primitive times, to catch a glimpse of the wonder of it all.

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2012. Building Personal Strength .