Creation and renewal

Every creation is a singular entity, yet creativity is universal, being the property of a Universe that brought into existence all particles of matter and counterpart antimatter in the first microseconds after its own creation1. Subsequent origination events all stem from this beginning, in endless rearrangements of matter: elementary particles grouping to form atoms of hydrogen and helium, themselves coalescing and igniting into stars2, which synthesise heavier elements; stars aggregating into galaxies3, including our Milky Way4; star births within galaxies, including the birth of our Sun5 in a spiral arm of the Milky Way’s galactic disc; the formation of Earth6 within the Sun’s Solar System; the establishment of Earth’s oceans7; the origin of life within the oceans8, and with the arrival of self-replicating biota, the evolution of their form and function by natural selection – a law unique to biological systems9 – in continual adaptation to their surrounding biotic and abiotic environment, through myriad branching and cross-fertilising lineages and linage extinctions, resulting in the wondrous diversity of life today on Earth, one of eight planets within our solar system, just one amongst some 100 billion other solar systems within our galaxy, just one amongst some 200 billion other galaxies in the observable Universe.

Mother Nature fashions her riches from inexhaustible fertility. For many animals10, and even some algae and plants11, individual renewal through reproduction demands parental care, to protect and nurture the vulnerable new creation. A good carer shelters and nourishes their offspring. A human carer delights in gathering elements from nature to fashion a dream for the child12…

From groves of spice,
O’er fields of rice,
Athwart the lotus-stream,
I bring for you,
Aglint with dew
A little lovely dream.

Sweet, shut your eyes,
The wild fire-flies
Dance through the fairy neem;
From the poppy-bole
For you I stole
A little lovely dream.

Dear eyes, good-night,
In golden light
The stars around you gleam;
On you I press
With soft caress
A little lovely dream.

Milestones in history

• Big Bang creation of the Universe, 13.8 Bya [billion years ago].
• Ignition of first stars, 13.55 Bya.
• Earliest galaxies, 13.51 Bya.
• Aggregation of stars into our Milky Way galaxy, 13.0 Bya.
• Formation of our Sun and Solar System, 4.57 Bya.
• Formation of our planet Earth, 4.50 Bya.
• Earliest oceans, 4.40 Bya.
• Earliest life on Earth, some 3.7-4.2 Bya.
• Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, 1859.
• Earliest evidence of tetrapod parents caring for offspring, 305 million years ago.
• Some red algae and bryophytes invest nutrients in their offspring, a form of parental care.
• Sarojina Naidu (1920) Cradle-Song. The word ‘neem’ refers to the Indian lilac tree Azadirachta indica. Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949) played a prominent role in the nonviolent movement against the British Raj in India, for which she was twice jailed. After India won independence from Britain in 1947, she became the country’s first woman governor, of the United Provinces (present-day Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand). Mahatma Gandhi called Sarojina Naidu ‘the Nightingale of Inda’ in recognition of her lyrical poetry. As a young woman, whe wrote in a letter to an English friend about her natal home in Hyderabad: “This sumptuous blaze of gold and sapphire sky; these scarlet lilies that adore the sunshine; the voluptuous scents of neem and champak and serisha that beat upon the languid air with their impeccable sweetness; the thousand little gold and blue and silverbreasted birds bursting with the shrill ecstasy of life in nesting time. All is hot and fierce and passionate, ardent and unashamed in its exulting and importunate desire for life and love.”

C.P. Doncaster, Timeline of the Human Condition, star index