When I am thinking of my ancestral heritage, I usually focus on my immediate precursors. These are the couple of generations that showed up on the family tree that my Mom helped me draw back when she could still remember names and dates.
Lately, I have been reminded that all the cells in my body, all the parts of me, have a much deeper history. My ancestral blood flowed not just a few generations or a few millennia ago. It has parts that were flowing in the blood vessels of ancestors at least a couple hundred thousand, perhaps a couple million years ago. Most of the DNA and RNA have been handed down for many million years. There have been little changes along the way, but most of it, most of me, is very, very old. Maybe it even existed before the dinosaurs.
In fact, there are parts of my blood that probably go back more than 3 billion years. Quite a family tree. Organelles that worked their way into the original cells came from pre-existing bacteria. They have a lineage that goes back to the early times of the young earth.
If I start taking those cells apart, the molecules and elements that were brought together to form the first terrestrial life-forms had been there on earth for another billion years. And before that they were star dust that can be tracked back more than 13 billion years.
Everything that is part of me has been around a very long time. Today my fingers may take the shape of fingers, but the “parts” have a common origin as far back as we can imagine. Even then, we have to imagine very hard to get back to the source.
I am trying to keep my attention on the now, this very moment. But it is hard not to be distracted by the memory of my ancient origins. I also remember that all of us have the same origin, out of the same stuff. Without the dimension of time, all things are of one source.