Dear body, I’d like to take a moment to thank you. Thank you for being here for me every day. Thank you for breathing in and out, filling my blood with oxygen so that I can respire, even when I forget to be mindful of my breathing. Thank you for pumping my heart muscles, pushing that blood all throughout me, often at unnecessarily elevated rates due to my silly worries and anxieties.

Thank you for figuring out what to do with all the photons of light that hit my eyes, turning them into images for my brain to ponder. Thanks for getting along with the contacts that I wear. Thank you that I can clearly see my doggers snout in my face as I first wake up.

Thank you for detecting sound waves so that I can listen to beautiful music, the chirping of birds, the nighttime crickets, the rippling brooks. I know the noisy neighbors, blaring car alarms, and overhead helicopters aren’t your fault. Thank you for detecting minute airborne particles so that I can smell the incredible scents of jasmine, tangerines, cloves, sage, and rain.  And so I know when it’s time to shower.

Thank you for doing something with all the food I eat. Thank you for the strength in my muscles for yoga, for sustaining the energy I need to hike, and for keeping my brain in good shape for science. Thanks for taking the brunt of all the stuff I eat emotionally, making you find places to store the excess. Sorry about that. You deserve better.

I’m really amazed how hard you work day in and out just so I can carry my racing thoughts about. Metabolizing, synthesizing, repairing DNA, reacting enzymes, pumping against gradients, fighting off foreign bodies, cohabitating with native bacteria, sorting, processing, eliminating, generating energy, using energy, replicating, recycling. Damn impressive. I think I will thank you more often.

I’m really grateful for you, body. I’m grateful you’re alive. I’m grateful for all the health I do have. I’m grateful for all the things I can do.

Dear Body, Thank You.