Today, I am 37 years old. I am not 3.7 billion-year-old microscopic life from the primordial ooze in which life began. Today, I am just 37 years old. I am not 370 million year old Devonian fossil shells from an ancient sea that once covered this land. Today, I am 37 years old. I am not the 137,000 year old Illinois Glacier. A huge sheet of ice that scoured this piece of earth. Today, I am 37 years old. I am not even a 370 year old buffalo hide painting that tells the mythic tales of native people who hunted and fished along the shores of this endless river. Today, “I” am 37 years old 37 years ago the great mother gave birth to me. From her primordial ooze my life began, my bones made of ancient stones.
She fed me from her fertile fields of glacial till and prairie grasses. I was given a buffalo heart of mythic tales. I am 37 years old, today.