Others have mentioned that life is fragile.  This blogger begs to differ.  On our Planet Earth, not only is Life not fragile, there is no niche anywhere on Earth that is not occupied by some form of Life.  Living things have been found from the deepest deep-sea trenches under the oceans, to the volcanic craters of active volcanoes both below the seas and on islands in Hawaii and Indonesia; to the hot springs of Yellowstone, to the highest peaks of the Himalayas, to the deserts of Africa and Central Asia.

I live in the Pacific Northwest, surrounded by temperate Rain Forests.  In places like these, Life is so profuse, layers upon layers have their own kinds of living things.

This is a “nurse log” at the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge on the Olympic Peninsula.  The logs all have mosses growing on them.  You can see the big hole in the fallen log-inside that hole are insects.  Insects also populate the moss on the logs.  You can see other plants growing out of that log.  It’s quite remarkable how many layers of Life there are in, on, and around that fallen log.  Eventually, big trees will grow on top of that fallen log, and the insects and bacteria will consume it.  Many of these logs are found to have holes in them, made by woodpeckers hunting for the insects that live there.

Down on the beach below, even the rocks have their beautiful color variations.

And the various grasses.  These are very hardy grasses, growing in a sometimes-harsh environment of salt water and nearly-constant wind.

And sometimes, in the midst of these delicate colors, something very bright stands out.

Welcome to Life on Earth.  How fortunate we are to live on this beautiful planet, with living things all around us.

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