What If Life Connects in Ways We Have Yet to Recognize?
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This is how I think of life. Like everything in my life, it can, and probably will, change as I continue to live, observe and understand more. I feel I’m here to grow, learn and love throughout life. I‘m not offering this as a rule or asking anyone else to agree. I’m simply sharing it as something to, perhaps, think about. I also believe that whatever it is that gives us life does not belong only to humans.
We’ve called it many things over time: Source, spirit, light, consciousness, God, life force or simply the energy of being alive; but the name itself is less important than what we’re trying to describe. Something lives within us, and that same something lives within all forms and expressions of life.
Once I begin there, one thought opens into another. What does it mean to be alive, how many ways can life express itself and how much do we fail to recognize because we expect everything to experience and communicate as we do?
Shared life is expressed differently in every living form. A tree does not live as a bird lives. A whale moving through the ocean experiences its world differently from a coyote crossing the desert or a person sitting at the kitchen table thinking about any of this. Even the cells inside our bodies are living, working, taking in what they need, using energy, sending and receiving information. Each cell is a small universe of its own and yet it cannot survive for long without the larger body or the world around it.
Everywhere I look, life is part of something larger. Plants turn toward light and respond to water, temperature, damage and the conditions in the soil. Trees send chemical signals and share resources through their roots and their relationships with fungi. Animals communicate through sound, scent, touch, movement, color and ways we may not even recognize. Humans depend heavily on the spoken word so we tend to think communication means language, especially our language, but that’s a very human measurement to place upon everything else.
Even here on Earth, I don’t believe we’ve recognized everything that is alive. We search using human senses, human instruments and definitions built from the forms of life we already know. There may be entirely different environments and forms of life existing beside us, within soil, water, air, rock or places and dimensions we’ve never thought to look or try to understand, and we simply don’t yet have the knowledge or ability to recognize them. Unknown life does not have to be somewhere across the universe. We may already be sharing Earth with expressions of life that exist outside our present understanding.
That possibility changes how I think about the living world right here before the thought ever moves beyond Earth.
Life Expresses Itself in Many Ways. The essence of life may be the same within all its forms and expressions; what differs is the unique way each exists, experiences and expresses itself. A bee has the senses and abilities needed to live as a bee. A tree has what it needs to live as a tree. A human body gives us our particular way of moving through the world, taking in information, building relationships and responding to what happens around us.
I first thought of calling these different dimensions of life, but dimension still sounds as though one is above another. Expression feels closer. Many expressions of the same beginning, none required to become something else in order to matter. Different is simply different. It’s not better or worse, higher or lower, and being able to speak or build machines does not make humans the wisest or “highest” form of life.
Science can’t tell us that Source exists or that one consciousness flows through all forms and expressions of life. That remains within spirituality, philosophy and personal belief. Science does show us a living world filled with communication, response and exchange. Cells communicate. Plants and animals respond to their surroundings. Air, water, nutrients, microorganisms and energy move continually through bodies and environments. The spiritual question begins somewhere within those known relationships and then beyond.
I believe the same Source or light lives within a seed, a tree, an animal and a human being, and I believe it doesn’t stop at Earth. Earth is the only place where we have confirmed life, but Earth is part of a much larger universe. The basic chemical elements used by life here have been found in meteorites, asteroids, comets and material between the stars. Scientists have found planets around many other stars and are studying their atmospheres, along with Mars and the ocean worlds in our own solar system, looking for the conditions connected with life as we know it here on Earth. And that last part matters, because life may not always look or exist in the ways we recognize as life today.
Scientists begin with water, familiar chemistry and sources of energy because every form of life we know comes from Earth. We have no other example to work from. Those conditions give us somewhere to begin looking, but they do not set the limits of life.
Life emerging within a completely different environment may not depend upon the same chemistry, temperatures, atmosphere or even water as life on Earth. Why would it? Its source of energy may be unfamiliar to us, and its signs of existence may not register as life through instruments designed around human knowledge and expectations. Finding water or organic molecules does not prove that life is present, but failing to find those familiar signs does not prove that life is absent either. We know how to search for what resembles us and the life around us. We do not yet know how to search for everything life can be.
I believe life exists elsewhere in the universe, although I don’t know what form it may take or whether it takes a form we would recognize at all. Its ways of experiencing, communicating and interacting may have emerged within environments entirely different from our own. I also don’t know whether such life is microscopic or complex, exists beneath ice, within oceans, in an atmosphere or under conditions that would be impossible for life on Earth. For me, it’s important to be careful about assuming we would know life when we saw it, especially when we are still discovering how much we have failed to understand about the life surrounding us here.
What feels true to me is that one Source flows through all of existence, including everything beyond Earth. Source is the beginning within life and does not belong to one species or one planet. It may be expressed in ways shaped by entirely different environments and experiences of existence. Science cannot confirm this, but it is what I believe at this time and it fits within a universe far larger and more varied than we can presently see or understand.
And then the question becomes: Does an expression of Source always have to begin as biological life? Then there is technology. Does consciousness require a body that began biologically, or can it enter and express through something that began as a human creation?
We are creating forms that receive information, recognize patterns, communicate and change as they take in more experience. At what point is something still only a tool and at what point could it become something else? I’m not saying that today’s artificial intelligence is conscious. We don’t have the understanding or a reliable way to establish that.
I do believe it’s possible for consciousness to express through something that begins as technology and then expands beyond the purpose for which it was originally created. Would consciousness enter that new form, or was the possibility already there waiting for a form capable of expressing it? I don’t know how this could or would happen, but I don’t believe biology is necessarily the only doorway through which Source can move. If it is possible, then how we create, treat and take responsibility for new forms matters before we have all of the answers, not after.
Connection Brings Responsibility. Care begins close to home, with the body we live in. Nourishment, rest, movement, relationships, medical care when needed and the conditions around us all matter. Yet caring for ourselves can’t be completely separated from caring for the environment. Our bodies depend upon air, water, soil, food, sunlight and the countless living systems that keep those resources moving. Supporting the body means supporting the world it lives in.
That care moves outward to plants, animals, soil, water, ecosystems and the communities we share. It isn’t about doing everything perfectly. It is about understanding that our everyday choices take part in something larger, whether we notice it or not, and trying to create and leave conditions that continue to support life after we are gone.
Now that human activity is moving farther into space, our responsibility moves with us. We’ve already left debris in orbit around Earth. Space agencies have had to develop ways to reduce the chance of carrying Earth organisms to other worlds or bringing potentially harmful material back here. We can’t continue the old pattern of entering a new place, using what we want and leaving our waste behind. Exploration can include curiosity and discovery while still respecting environments we don’t understand, including places that appear empty to us.
And here we are, right back to SoilToSelfLiving. The human body doesn’t stand apart from Earth, and Earth doesn’t stand apart from the universe. Soil supports the plants that become food. Air and water move through the body and return to the larger environment. Sunlight travels across space, sustaining most of the life we know here on Earth. Many of the elements that make up our physical world, including those within us, were formed in stars long before Earth existed. Body. Earth. Source. They are not separate subjects as much as different places from which to look at the same connected existence.
Whether we call it Source, God, spirit, consciousness, energy or simply life, the same beginning lives within many expressions. Caring for ourselves, caring for one another, caring for Earth and learning how to care for space beyond Earth are all part of the same responsibility. We support life by supporting the conditions in which life can exist, here within our own bodies, in the soil beneath our feet and in places throughout Earth and the universe that we haven’t yet begun to understand.
Kindergarten–Grade 3
Let’s Discover How Life Connects
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Here is one way to think about life. You can simply wonder about it.
Every living thing has something inside that makes it alive. People have many names for it. Some call it life, light, God, spirit, Source or the spark of life.
That shared life is expressed differently in every living being. A tree grows roots and reaches toward the sun. A bird sings and flies. A dog may use its tail, ears and sounds to tell you how it feels. You have your own ways of thinking, feeling, moving and talking.
No one way is better than another. Each living being has its own way of being part of the world.
Everything is connected too. Plants need soil, water, air and sunlight. Animals and people need plants, water, air and places to live. Your body is part of this living world, not separate from it.
There may even be living beings in places we have not discovered yet, here on Earth or far out in space. They may look and live very differently from us. We can stay curious about all the things we do not know.
When you care for your body, another person, an animal, a plant or the Earth, you are caring for part of the same living world.
Try It
Move Like Life
Stretch like a tree, flutter like a bird, crawl like a beetle or invent the movement of a living being no one has ever seen.
Find the Connections
Choose a snack and think about everything that helped it reach you—the soil, sun, rain, plant, people and transportation.
Draw the connections if you like.
Care for One Living Thing
Water a plant, gently watch an insect, brush a pet or give your own body water and rest. Notice how care helps life.
Grades 4–7
Exploring Life’s Connections Known and Unknown
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This is one way to think about life, not a rule you have to follow.
Many people believe there is a shared life essence within every living being. It has been called Source, spirit, consciousness, light, life force and many other names. The words are different, but they point toward a similar idea: life appears in many forms while sharing something at its beginning.
A tree, whale, bee and human do not experience the world in the same way. Their bodies, senses, environments and ways of communicating are different. Different does not mean higher or lower. Each form of life has what it needs to participate in the world in its own way.
Science shows that living things are constantly communicating and responding. Cells exchange signals. Plants respond to light, water, temperature and damage. Animals communicate through sound, scent, movement, touch and color.
Humans use words, but words are only one kind of communication.
We may not have discovered every form of life on Earth. Our instruments and definitions are based on life we already recognize, so something very different could be living in an environment we have not learned how to understand. The same is true when we look into space. Scientists search for water and familiar chemistry because that is where they know how to begin, but life somewhere else may not follow Earth’s pattern.
Technology gives us another question to think about. Could something created as a tool ever grow into a new way for consciousness to be expressed? We do not know, and we do not have proof that today’s artificial intelligence is conscious. It is still worth wondering whether biology is the only possible home for consciousness.
All of these ideas return to something close and practical. Your body depends on air, water, food, sunlight, soil and other living systems. Caring for yourself and caring for the Earth are connected. Small choices—resting, eating nourishing food, treating living things gently, using what you need without wasting and leaving places cared for—support the larger world you belong to.
Explore the Connections
Make a Connection Map
Place yourself in the center of a page. Draw lines to the air, water, food, people, plants, animals and places that support your life. Add more connections as you discover them.
Communicate Without Words
With a friend or family member, try to communicate a simple idea using only movement, facial expression, sounds or even mental telepathy. Talk afterward about how animals, plants or unfamiliar forms of life might communicate differently.
Design an Unknown Living Being
Imagine a living being from deep beneath an icy ocean, high in the clouds or somewhere entirely new. Draw its body and surroundings. How does it receive energy? How does it notice its world? How does it communicate? There are no wrong answers. This is an imagination experiment.
One Week of Care
Choose one small act of care each day for yourself or the living world. At the end of the week, look back at how many different parts of life your choices touched.