This planet

(Painted Mines.  Colorado.)

I have a friend who feels sometimes that the world is hostile to human life — he says it chills us and kills us.  But how could we be were it not for this planet that provided our very shape?  Two conditions — gravity and a livable temperature range between freezing and boiling — have given us fluids and flesh.  The trees we climb and the ground we walk on have given us five fingers and toes.  The ‘place’ (from the root plat, broad, spreading, flat) gave us far-seeing eyes, the streams and breezes gave us versatile tongues and whorly ears.  The land gave us a stride, and the lake a dive.  The amazement gave us our kind of mind.  We should be thankful for that, and take nature’s stricter lessons with some grace.

~ Gary Snyder