Clearly Thanksgiving is a reminder to be thankful for faith, family, and freedom.  If regarding the holiday as it is meant, perhaps we should look within; really take a deep dive into our origins rather than toward our typical intentions of gratitude. It's an opportunity to self-examine our priorities and value our gift of life.

Thanksgiving challenge

As we give thanks for specific gifts in our life, we may overlook a simple, obvious one from the beginning of time.  When seated at your table this year, let go of problems that plague your ability to appreciate your life.  Instead, realize your winnings in the incredible lottery of life. 

Miracle?  Tell us at the end of this article.

A story about how you came to be...A young woman (let's just say someone really close to you) could look back at when she was in her mother's womb.  At about twenty weeks' gestation, she had most of her reproductive egg cells, about six million to be exact. 

By the time she was born, she had one to two million eggs.  She, like all women, never had the possibility to produce more eggs.  In fact, her eggs were reduced throughout her lifetime.  When she was a young teenager, she had about three hundred and fifty thousand eggs.   

According to, Cnyfertility.com, if this woman fell within the averages, with their estimations we surmised that when she was twenty-five, she had about two-hundred thousand egg cells on reserve. 

At age thirty, she had about one hundred to one hundred-fifty thousand eggs, and at age thirty-five, around eighty thousand. The number dropped drastically from age thirty to thirty-five, to less than twenty-five thousand.

By the time she was forty she had only five to ten thousand egg cells in reserve. 

At fifty, she was going through perimenopause and had only three hundred eggs, if any at all.  In the coming years, she ceased to make estrogen because her eggs ran out and she became menopausal.

But let's jump back to the beginning

Everyday about thirty-to-forty eggs started developing in her mother's reproductive cycle.  At any given time, this young woman's mother had a cumulative five hundred to one thousand eggs developing.

The egg with the right stuff started its journey about ninety days before it was penetrated.  With the help of hormones like FSH after about seventy days, this incredibly special egg became responsive and was pulled into the mother's menstrual cycle.  The timing had to be on par for it to have a chance at ovulation, as most eggs never make it so far.  But this incredible egg cell did it.

There it was, this egg, the existence of possibility.  Its odds of fertilization were also extremely low, despite the perfect timing.  All the months and years of this mother's reproductive life, there were lucky, timely eggs that would not be fertilized; but this one would be different.  It could have been washed away with the shedding of its surroundings as the mother's period began and the uterus flushed the precious egg away, like every other typical month in the mother's menstrual cycle.

However, that was not the case, was it?

A strapping, young lad produced between thirty million to just over one billion sperm that swam wildly towards something one day.  It could have been anything, nothing, but they swam and swam and swam until most of them, like between twenty-eight million to over one billion gave up.

The other approximately two million reached an open door through something called the cervix, and they all crowded in.  There were about one million duds that stayed.  Most became unviable in a few days due to stress and the difficult environment meant.  This was not a mistake though.  The environment is meant to weed out those that were defective or with slow motility. 

The other one million kept on their dangerous journey, wildly flipping their tail from side-to-side until they reached the uterus. 

Just sensing their journey was not over, ten thousand swam to the top of the uterus.   About half of them continued to swim blind towards the egg cell, while the others started swimming in circles, into the wrong junction or simply tuckered out with all the excitement.   

Drawn to the chemical attractants like progesterone released in the woman's reproductive tract, the remaining five-thousand sperm found their way into the correct utero-tubal junction.  The follicular fluid that surrounded the mother's egg continued to stimulate about one-thousand super strong swimmers who reached the inside of the Fallopian tube.     

Some of those who got tired and/or lost somewhere in the crypts (cavities in a mother's female anatomy) still had a chance of finding their potential destiny for as long as five days. 

However, most of about two hundred or less male reproductive cells reached the egg in thirty minutes to several hours following sex.  They had the speed and endurance needed to overcome unquantifiable obstacles to reach the young mother's glorious giant egg (2 cm to be exact).

Every sperm cell for itself

These cells, who obviously had the right stuff to get that far were at the height of their euphoric state of mindless desire, fighting for life, with no defenses.  They all tried feverishly to penetrate the egg.  But there could only be one.

Containing the DNA from an incredibly special father (exactly twenty-three chromosomes), one damn strong and smart human sperm cell used the tip of his head, called the acrosome to penetrate the egg cell (also containing twenty-three chromosomes).  The surface of the egg cell changed so that no other sperm could enter, and the others eventually accepted the loss despite how smart they were and fast they swam.

Someone important to you was officially conceived.

Implantation

But the sperm and egg were still hard at work.  After about twenty-four hours the zygote divided into two cells on its way to uterus.  After about a week it transformed itself from two cells to a cluster of about one hundred cells and someone important was a blastocyst.

Luckily, it attached to the mother's uterus (which isn't easy, many never attach in a typical mother's uterus for,

• no apparent reason,
• due to IUD's or,
• another way the body weeds out  defective or and get flushed out on the next period).  implantation (pregnancy) occurred.

Someone important became a human embryo.

Cells continued to divide to become this special person and the placenta that nourished her until birth.

Who is she?

No.  This was not the story of your conception.  The story is about your mother. 

The young mother in our example is your grandmother and the lad, your grandfather.  And when your mother was in your grandmother's womb, twenty weeks later, one half of your chromosomes was created and your existence, under way. 

Now think about the value of your life

Think about how far back you can go in your genealogy and think how lucky you are to be alive.  Think about the odds of your existence based on, not only your ancestors' reproductive odds of producing the people who would eventually produce you, but you must also gather the physical nature of attraction and odds of those who met one another to either fall in love or at least create a life that would someday lead to an extremely specific person.  You.  

Lucky to be alive? 

How 'bout lucky to be you?

According to Pacific Standard, when considering the base-pair level, your genome is 99.9% the same as everyone.  But that .1% makes you who you are. 

While most of your DNA sequence is the same as everyone's, as a typical person your human genome differs in about four-to-five million places.  This makes you unique and who you are.  Your parents and those before them provided you with a platform of possibilities, just like the egg and sperm, what you do with your opportunities is up to you.  You are a unique individual who makes a difference in people's lives, everyone you encounter is impacted by your existence.  Make the most of it.

Win the lottery of life once more

The odds your father's sperm would be "the one" as part of your conception isn't the same as the odds of winning the lottery.  That's true.

2 Power balls are better than ... 15.  Wait what!?

In fact, you would have only one chance in approximately 15 lotteries of being "the one".  

Now factor in the egg cell with your genes from your mother.  The odds that egg would be the "one" are unbelievable.  But somehow, that egg and that sperm made it together as "one".  By fate, luck, God or all three, you were meant to be on some level of creation.  

Two amazing precious packages of chromosomes. You.

You were fast, smart, and powerful.  You had perfect timing and staying power.  You won a chance at life; prove you can live it the same way your chromosomes were part of creating it.

Still not sure?  Well let's get specific.

The specific probability of your existence is 1 in 400 trillion!  And that's what we call the lottery of life.  Don't waste it, intentionally end it or fail to realize it.  Think about those who win the lotto and find themselves broke within a few years due to mismanagement of their winnings.  Makes ya' cringe.  Well, your life, the same way, but far more valuable.  Some would say, invaluable.   So don;t mismanage your life!  The good news is that as long as you are still here reading this story, you still have money in the Bank of Life.   

 

Let's Give Thanks

I'll start.

My thanks, inspiration, and vow to value my life despite my losses

I truly acknowledge and value the gift of life.  After giving it much thought, I realized I needed to make more of it.  I thanked God for my life and the opportunity to live it.  I need to remember this when I feel stuck or that I have been given a rotten life.  I need to see my life as a blank slate regardless of how much I feel people, problems, and my own actions (or inaction) have tarnished it.  I see how lucky I am to have a life and vow to make it the best I can and refuse to let toxic feelings destroy it.

I must continue to be thankful for the opportunity to have known, love and create someone I so dearly love and miss, someone whose miracle of life was too short.  I vow to realize he was created for a reason and will forever make a difference in our lives.  He is with his true Creator, shining love and remembrance on us all. 

My family, friends and co-workers continue to provide inspiration to be a better person, publisher, and most of all, a better mother to my beautiful children, grandmother to my adorable granddaughter and a more thankful daughter to my own mother.  

We all face challenges; some are harder than others.  But life is meant to be, and death inevitable.  How we live our life represents how we value it.  Sometimes, we just need a brief examination of our existence, our life to realize when it is time to let go, hold on and simply be thankful. 

If for nothing else, and Lord, I truly know sometimes it may feel as if there is nothing else, I am thankful for the chance to have a human genome and the opportunity to have created my beautiful children.     

If you are with your parents or grandparents, this Thanksgiving

Before you eat and after everyone has said grace, present a toast to them for the superb love and luck that they originated the gift of your life.  Thank them without expectation of anything in return.  Thank them for making you who you are today, someone who knows his/her strength to get through challenging times and the ability to thank, forgive, and believe in yourself and others.

If your parents and grandparents are estranged from you  

Our suggestion excludes contacting someone where abuse took place or where contact could put you or someone else in danger.

• For all others, make the call.  Regardless of what they say, do it selflessly. Thank them for giving you your life and the opportunity to love and be loved. 
• Let them know you love them despite the distance and/or problems you have had in the past. 
• If you have not talked in a while, you could ask some of the following,
  • them how they are doing
  • what they have been up to
  • and about any books or shows they are into
• Keep it casual and stay on topic. Again, don't worry about how they reply, some parents are proud and don't seem to care, but they do.  
• Tell them they need not do anything or say anything, the call is just to let them know you're thankful.

If you were adopted

• Know that the biological component was still a miracle of life.  But outwardly, your parents who raised you, cared for and loved you, were as powerful as the sperm and egg that created you. 
• Call or if you are together on Thanksgiving, tell them from across the table, "Thank you for finding me, helping me, claiming me, loving me.  Thank you for providing for the miracle of life I was biologically bestowed and raising me to understand the value of it. I love you mom and dad." 

From our DMK family, we all wish you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday and a Wonderful Life.  Sometimes we just need to find Zuzu's petals.