YOU MAY FIND THIS HARD to believe, but you’ve got an amazing body!
Did you know, for example, that your body’s organs, tissues, bones, immune system – all your bits-&-pieces – are made up of cells. An estimated 30 trillion microscopic cells. That’s right, 30,000,000,000,000 of them!
But wait: there’s more!
Inside each of those tiny cells, packed into a space smaller than you can see, is your DNA – the long spiral molecules that contain your unique genetic code (basically, the recipe-book instructions for the making of you).
Listen to Hannah Ashworth (in the BBC Science Focus Magazine): “The DNA in your cells is packaged into 46 chromosomes in the nucleus, and supercoiled so it takes up less space.
“Try holding a piece of string at one end, and twisting the other. As you add twists, the string creates coils of coils – and eventually, coils of coils of coils. Your DNA is arranged as a coil of coils of coils of coils of coils. This allows the three billion pairs inside each cell to fit into a space just six microns across.
“If you stretched the DNA in one cell all the way out, it would be about two metres long. And all the DNA in all your cells put together would be about twice the diameter of the Solar System.”
Mind-boggling, right? And super-encouraging, we reckon. You’re neither small nor insignificant – you’re just very well folded!
HOME TRUTHS
Don’t forget:
while
you’re
busy
DOUBTING
yourself,
someone
else
is
admiring
your
STRENGTH!
UNKNOWN
UNPACKING
Everyone comes with baggage.
Find someone who
loves you enough to
help you
unpack.
UNKNOWN
MOVE IT!
If we were
meant
to
stay
in
one
place,
we’d have
roots
instead
of
feet.
SEEING THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
Do you ever look around at the state of the world or just where you are – especially during this pandemic and all the uncertainty it poses – and think, This is not how it’s supposed to be! I certainly do, on a regular basis! Families separated by closed borders … the effects of the pandemic itself on our nation’s health, economy, relationships … it feels like a bit of a mess sometimes, and definitely NOT how I envisage things should be.
However, a recent beach-wander, admiring the views and picking up bits of sea-glass for my collection, gave me a tidbit of inspiration …
Sea-glass – broken, buffed by sand and wave, altered by its time in the sea – is more beautiful because of everything it’s endured. Sea-glass is glass as it’s not supposed to be. It’s no longer an intact item … no longer practically useful … no longer clear or sharp. But aesthetically? Well, that’s a different story. Its beauty is in its softness and its misty translucency. It is a thing that glows, its soft edges the result of its tumultuous history.
It strikes me that we have a choice when we hit rough patches in life. We can either focus on how our circumstances are not what they’re supposed to be, and become sharp (and bitter) as a result. Or we can let them gently mould us into a softer, more beautiful version of ourselves. We can find ways to reach out, even while we’re separated. We can forge harmony where there’s division. We can care for those isolated, whose isolation has only been aggravated by the pandemic …
I’m trying to take a lesson from these treasured bits of sea-glass, allowing myself to be changed for the better by the challenges of our times.
TRACY CARTER – GRAPEVINE
BE SOFT …
Don’t let the world make you hard.
Don’t let pain make you hate.
Don’t let bitterness steal your sweetness.
KURT VONNEGUT
ROUGH WEATHER?
We are not all in the same boat.
But we are in the same storm.
Some have yachts,
some have canoes
and some are drowning.
Just be kind and help whoever you can.
DAMIAN BARR
WHEN PARENTS GET OLD …
Let them grow old with the same love that they let you grow …
Let them speak and tell
repeated stories with
the same patience and interest
that they heard yours as a child …
Let them overcome, like
so many times when
they let you win …
Let them enjoy their friends
just as they let you …
Let them enjoy the talks with
their grandchildren because
they see you in them …
Let them enjoy living among
the objects that have
accompanied them for a
long time, because they
suffer when they feel that
you tear pieces of this life
away …
Let them be wrong, like so many
times you’ve been wrong and
they didn’t embarrass
you by correcting you …
Let them live, and try to
make them happy on the last
stretch of the path they
have left to go …
Give them your hand, just like
they gave you their hand when
your started your path.
UNKNOWN
SILLY – KIND – WEIRD
None of us are getting out of here alive, so please stop treating yourself like an afterthought. Eat the delicious food. Walk in the sunshine. Jump in the ocean. Say the truth that you’re carrying in your heart like hidden treasure. Be silly. Be kind. Be weird. There’s no time for anything else.
NANEA HOFFMAN – SWEATPANTS & COFFEE
COMPANIONS
Surround yourself with the dreamers and the doers, the believers and thinkers.
But, most of all, surround yourself with those who can see the greatness within you, even when you don’t see it yourself.
EDMUND LEE
