50 trillion

I felt silly the first time I did it. But it was a good kind of silly. It brought fresh air into my soul.

“Thank you, girls,” I said. “Thanks for another great day!” I grinned. Laughed out loud.

I was talking to my cells—the 50 trillion molecular geniuses that make up my body—and feeling aware and oh so alive as I thanked them.

I am enchanted with the phrase “50 trillion molecular geniuses” as a description of my body. It induces wonder, just like the biblical “fearfully and wonderfully made” that I learned when I was small.

The 50 trillion phrase comes from Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard trained brain scientist who had a massive hemorrhagic stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain at age 37. The stroke left her unable to walk, talk, read, write, or recall her life, yet she fully recovered in eight years. And wrote a book about what she learned called A Stroke of Insight.

How many is 50 trillion? My mind reaches toward the number but can’t get anywhere close to actual comprehension. Plus 50 trillion cells cooperating — working together through intricately complex, interrelated systems? How many design flaws did our Creator have to work out before proceeding with the actual release of Human Body 1.0?

The thanking-cells-out-loud bit is from Dr. Jill, too. She wrote:

“I’m having a big love-fest with the fifty trillion molecular geniuses making up my body. I am so grateful that they are alive and working together in perfect harmony that I trust them implicitly to bring me health. The first thing every morning and the last thing every night, I consciously thank my cells for another great day. I care enough to say it out loud … and I say it with an intense feeling of gratitude in my heart.”

I don’t remember to thank my cells every day. But I no longer take them for granted. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older. Maybe it’s because I now need to eat mindfully to stay out of prediabetes territory. Maybe it’s seeing what happens to beloved elders when some of those molecular geniuses no longer work so well.

Whatever it is, I find myself deeply grateful for the 50 trillion molecular geniuses that handle my breathing, digesting, moving, planning, remembering, seeing, hearing, smelling, sleeping. I find myself more in awe of the One who designed them and gifted them to me.

You might consider thanking your 50 trillion molecular geniuses out loud. You might feel silly. But it’s a good kind of silly. The kind that brings a wave of wellbeing rolling into the soul.