By Catherine Keefe

I am rock and sand, green and growing, of the sea, an artful puzzle piece of family and friends, lit by a divine spark.

Today’s August Break prompt is “5 Facts About Me.” OK, fine. But what about us?

We are 7,358,343,528 bodies sharing this earth, a number ticking up every new second according to the World Population Clock.

We speak uncountable languages daily trying to communicate with one another, acording to the Linguistic Society of America.

We try to eat every day, and our spending varies greatly from $1.23 per week in Chad, to $500.07 in Germany, says Peter Menzel in his book, Hungry Planet.

We give more than 28 billion hugs every day, if we abide by Virginia Satir‘s advice: “We need 4 hugs a day for survival. We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance. We need 12 hugs a day for growth.”

We are more than the sum of our parts, less than our greatest desires. We are humans. Alive. Sharing the planet.