The continuation of life

No, I'm not talking about life after death.
But how life itself continues...which is pretty miraculous in itself.

For my little existence, I noticed a few things yesterday, which remind me of how life wants to continue itself.

The aquarium.

First, there's the sun at it's lowest in the sky today, and for the shortest amount of sunshine as well.
The photo above shows at the base of the small table, a spot of sunshine hitting that cat's toy.  This is the furthest into my apartment that the sun will hit all year.  Remind you of anything? How about Newgrange, or Stonehenge?  Well, this was closer to noon than dawn, but I like marking (via photos) this point of furthest tilt of the earth, everywhere I live on Winter Solstice.

Then back to life wanting it's own survival.  I put the divider back into the tank (bright turquoise vertical against the sides, clear perforated plastic from front to back). And I put a very pregnant female guppy onto the side in isolation. Yep, in the morning, hiding in lots of plastic weeds, were a bunch of new babies.  I swept momma out with the net, and put her on the other side with the rest of the adults. And then tried watching and counting the babies.

I think it's a bakers dozen.

I have to take the top off the aquarium to even see them, putting the light source to the back of the tank rather than the top.

They may not be cuddly like puppies and kittens, but they are cute in their miniature little way.  Just a tail with eyes, and then those little side flippers going like a hummingbird's wings, propelling them around from here to there, not showing that they know a thing yet.  They didn't even know to eat the first time I fed them.  But they are catching on.

This is the thrill, that new life can still happen, given the circumstances to support it.

I was thinking the other day how I continue the blood of my mothers, the ancestors from whom I am descended. And not just metaphorically.  My mother's blood came to me through the placenta in the womb.  And her mother's came to her before she was born.  We women have a continuous line of life blood, through each daughter to the next. 

I'd heard how girl babies already have all the cells which will become their eggs in their ovaries before they were born.  But I'd never thought of how the blood continues to flow through each of us as well.

More thoughts tomorrow on the miracle of life surviving for itself.

Today's Quote:

Take full account of the excellencies which you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.

Marcus Aurelius