It was just February. American Heart Month. A good time to step back and give thanks for this muscular organ that works constantly, every day of our lives.
Design a machine that pumps every second of every day, without stopping ever – not for maintenance or a vacation or just to take a break. Instead, it pumps constantly for 36 years. 37, 38, 80 years, more. Lots and lots of pumping. A technological marvel.
And that’s what you do, my heart.
You’re the size of my fist. But you pack a big punch. The center of my circulatory system - pump, tubes, fluid. Simple, really.
Push blood to the lungs, where the blood picks up oxygen and drops off carbon dioxide, waste; then push blood out through the body, within a few cell widths of every single cell, so it can drop off oxygen and pick up carbon dioxide, waste. Miles and miles of blood vessels.
I’ve never been around the world, but it’s like my blood goes there every day. Twice. Because there are 50,000 miles of blood vessels in my body. Two trips around the earth, at its equator. All right here.
Pump, tubes, fluid.
Lub-dup, lub-dup, lub-dup.
Beat, beat, beat.
I walk through every day without giving you a second thought.
But tonight, for just a second, I stop. And I listen. In thanks.
For you, my circulatory system. My blood vessels. My blood. My heart.