Water

I've been thinking about water. I don't know why, I just have.

There are probably only a few things on the planet that have been around since this ball of dust and gas and debris from the creation of the solar system coalesced into this form of Earth. It has had many forms over 4.5 billion years (sorry creationists, I'm an evolution kinda guy) but it has been water. It is 2 hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom combined. It's a really simple element, but one that can be separated or created anew when you burn hydrogen.

However, it doesn't really get destroyed. The atoms have been around in some form for billions of years. Ice, water, water vapor. Solid, liquid, gas. The water has also been in every thing that has ever lived. Once that thing died, the water moved on. Without water we are about 8 pounds of dry goods.

So the water that is a part of you came from the burning volcanoes 4.4 billion years ago. It was part of the primordial oceans where life first happened. It has been trapped and released from glaciers and ice ages countless times. It was the living breathing dinosaurs, the water they drank and, yes, even dino urine. It has been the rain in hurricanes, the currents of the oceans, the clouds in the sky. And the pool that I swam in even today.

So as far as "elements" go. That's pretty impressive. The only thing that might compare to such a journey over time is air.

Hmmm...