Contemplating Energy, Matter, and the Soul at Age 15

Amazing how expansive a young mind can be - how tragic that the world can chip away at such wonder. Decades later I would regain this feeling of awe and interconnectedness.

Journal Entry, Mollie McGurk, July 1999:

It's been a good day, we arrived at Niagara Falls at about 4:00. It's spectacular! The falls were really a beautiful sight, the sheer power and force awes me to a dumbfounded silence. We found our hotel around 4:30... it's a typical Ramada double suite, perfect for its purpose.

Any way, we checked in and got settled, then went out to see the sights and find a place to eat. Really, these falls astound me - they bring so many thoughts to my mind. The omnipotent wrath and power of our Earth, churning the waters that rush through through the land, cascading the liquid down, down, down off the rocky cliffs to the gorge carved out in the land below. Magnificent.

One thing did scare me, however. I began to have the desire to really know what it was like to be that water. I wasn't thinking suicidally, but it really was intriguing to think of the awesome rush one must get to be tossed and thrown down in the massive wall of white liquid. To be that water.

Of course, I must think of the fact that I, most likely, once was that water, or at least water that did the same thing as the water I saw today. Matter - all the matter in the known universe - is neither created nor destroyed over time, its form is simply changed. With that in consideration, the matter with which we are formed has been in existence for all of time, and will be in existence until all time has ended. The matter in our bodies is not necessarily us - "we" are the soul that inhabits the body - but still, as we look at ourselves we can know that what we see is immortal. What we see could have been part of anything and could become anything once our souls have left our shells. We truly are part of the Earth and everything truly is connected.

How exciting and remarkable. I'm going to have to think about this some more - it's so very intriguing. Bye for now!