A Trillion Reactions

A Trillion Reactions

A trillion reactions a second.

                A trillion jolts of electricity.

A trillion tiny elements

                Adding up to one massive miracle.

A network of tiny circuits

                Of chemical switches,

Of binary choices,

                Adding up to a colossal

                                Unlikelihood.

A mesh of interconnecting strands

                Of pulses

                                Streaming along,

                                                Of waves

Of polarisation,

                Coalescing.

The sum of chemical parts

                Adding up

To touch

                To sounds

                                To awareness

                                                To pictures

In my mind.

A trillion reactions a second.

                The sum total

                                Of who

                                                I am.

Opher 15.3.23

I am conscious.

That is beyond me and everyone else. We take it for granted.

I am conscious.

I am nothing more than a trillion reactions a second.

How does that work?

Those reactions give me a whole universe.

A miracle of nature.

A product of three billion years of evolving complexity, more wondrous that the universe itself.

A one of?

So incredibly unlikely.

Yet it has happened. I am here. My reactions wrote this.

I’m going to sit here and contemplate that for a minute or two.