Where DO we come from?

[This is a cross-post of a comment I left on David G. Markahm's CHALICEFIRE site.] I've been enjoying his morning meditations more and more as I've shared them during my own morning circuit through the internet. Today's was especially comforting and familiar, especially since it resonates so well with Gauguin's "D'où venons nous? Que sommes-nous? Où allons-nous?" (and the round in our hymnal inspired by it, which has been running through my head now since last Saturday's retreat).

I've always felt inspired by Carl Sagan's insight in the last episode/chapter of Cosmos that we are the part of the Universe that is becoming conscious of itself. Or Annie Dillard's observation (also in the hymnal) that we are here so that Creation need not play to an empty house. So even if our birth is nothing more than beating very long odds in a cosmic lottery, our "purpose" is defined for us right from the start -- to MAKE that meaning, (or at least to find some) and thus contribute to the self-awareness of the Universe as a whole.

As to where we go, I can tell you with some certainty where the carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen that make up most of my physical body will go -- right back into the dust from which it came. As for the rest of "me" (however one chooses to define that) will continue to linger around for a time in the legacy I leave for others -- the good I've done, those I've loved, whatever insights I may have had and shared along the way. And it's enough. More than enough, when you stop to be grateful for just how lucky we all are to get here in the first place....