Joan thought about this so often that it startled her now to realize she’d never put it into words before. What a thrill it was, to say it all.

“The trees need our breath, and our breath needs the trees,” she continued. “As scientists we call that symbiosis, and it is a consequence of evolution. But the natural consequences of our connections to each other—that’s God, to me. I believe in it because I can see it with my own eyes. I know it exists. But I also believe in it because I want to believe in it. I want to spend my energy thinking not of how my actions might be frowned upon by a man in the sky, but how my actions affect every living and non-living thing around me. Life is God. My life is tied to yours, and to everyone’s on this planet. How does that not instantly make us more in debt to one another? And also offer us the comfort that we are not alone?”

Vanessa smiled at her. “Is there more?”

Joan bit her lip. “I don’t know. No?”

“You know,” Vanessa said, “when you’re flying a plane, you can’t see people on the ground. All you can see are the towns they live in and the neighborhoods they fall asleep in. From up there, everyone is so alike, they have so much in common, and they can’t see it. But I can, when I’m up there.”

“That’s exactly it! We are each other. I guess I’m too blown away by it all—too moved by it—to not feel a sense of awe that other people feel in a church.”

Vanessa looked at her. “Someday, I want to take you flying over the Rockies early in the morning, when the sun is rising over the mountains and it hits the ridge just right and…it reminds me of the light coming through the stained-glass windows at the church my mother took me to every Sunday. And I just know you’re going to say, ‘That’s God.’ ”

“I am going to say, ‘That’s God’! Not just because it’s beautiful, but because sunrise over the mountains is part of the universe itself. Everything, all of us, is God.”

She noticed Vanessa staring at her, smiling.

“I probably sound like I’m high,” Joan said. “Not that I’d know.”

Vanessa laughed. “Don’t worry, I followed it perfectly.” She folded both arms behind her head. “Have you told anyone this whole theory of yours?”

“It’s not my theory! Einstein believed it. Many civilizations have considered some form of it. But…no, nobody’s ever asked.”

Vanessa looked at her and smiled. “Well, you’re brilliant,” she said. “You are wasted being a scientist. You should be an Evangelical preacher with that kind face and all this compelling proselytizing.” She pulled Joan back down onto the bed.