Flow of Life

Today I gave blood for the 25th time in my life. Given that we can donate every 56 days, it is clear that either (a) I'm very young, or (b) I haven't been as conscientious about donating as I could be! The answer in this case is (b)!! "Too busy, forgot the appointment... they have enough people..." Some of the excuses I can come up with, quite weak ones obviously, and yet ones that hold me in their grip more often than not.

Scientists tell us that the air we are breathing today has been breathed in China, that it has gone in and out of the lungs of countless people. That can seem a little weird and removed. Donating blood on the other hand has an immediacy to it. My blood, the blood that has been keeping me alive, will be flowing through the veins and arteries of other people shortly, giving them life. My life being shared with the lives of others.

Sometimes I walk down the street and think, "maybe they received my blood". And there is a sense of connection. We are connected, at a deep and fundamental level. My blood has mingled with theirs, so that there is no longer "my blood" and "their blood"... it is "our blood".

Beyond breathing the same air, and sharing the same blood... all of us are connected. We are One. We come from the same stardust, come from the same clay of the earth. We are more alike than we are different. We like to think we are special and different, but when it comes right down to it... we are motes of the whole. Motes of the divine... dancing a dance in which we believe we are separate... and yet connected by the divine symphony to which we dance.