Am I a Thief?

I ask myself:
~ Am I a thief?

That I would lay claim to who I am
and live solely for self glorification?

Not even these words are mine
Before this world gave them to me
they existed elsewhere
created by English speaking ancestors
and eventually passed on to me

I didn't create this body
My mother did, at first
Since then, I owe physical existence
to farmers all over the world
who plant and hoe
and sweat and pray
and harvest
so I will have food

Not even the air I breathe is mine
Without it
I would not last five minutes
Yet, I cannot hold it
It comes in and then it leaves me,
off to feed the trees
or nourish other lungs

Even these thoughts in my mind
came from somewhere else
Ideas adopted from
parents, family, friends,
school, church,
books, media,
you

What I call myself
is a bundle
of independently functioning cells
and a collection of ideas
that drifted across the mental field
and landed in my mind
like so much dandelion fluff snags on a drying sheet

I only exist
because everything else exists

My life does not belong to me
I belong to life

Intertwined with everything and everyone
I cannot steal myself from myself

The only thing I can do
amidst this ever changing, integrated platform called life
is remember
I am but one small part
of one great whole