I saw my heart the other day. The technician who performed my echocardiogram took me on a tour to the interior of my being.She identified the four chambers of the double pump that is my heart: two atriums on top, one right, one left; two ventricles on the bottom, one right, one left.I saw the aortic and pulmonary valves open and close like the lips of kissing fish. The mitral and tricuspid valves clapped continuously as if to a standing ovation.I watched in awe as the heart muscle contracted and expanded like the steady beat of a drum and found myself amazed that electrical impulses cause my heart to beat 60 times a minute, 86,000 times a day, every day of my life.The technician moved to the outer muscle of my heart and assured me the walls and size were normal.In the press of a button, the black and white movie turned into a colored Doppler of orange and blue. The sound rhythmic like a washing machine. My orange, oxygen-rich blood flowed from my left ventricle into the aorta to circulate throughout my body through the arteries. On its return to my heart, my blue blood, depleted of oxygen and filled with carbon dioxide, enters the right atrium then cycles through the right ventricle to my lungs for a fresh supply of oxygen.How absolutely amazing. Our bodies were created as perfect machines, billions of cells vibrating energy throughout our bodies. Sometimes through misuse or neglect, these perfect machines become diseased and fail to operate to their fullest capacity. Modern medicine has come a long way to understanding the workings of the heart. They can replace leaky valves, open blocked arteries, regulate the electrical impulses that pump blood through our circulatory system, and transplant a failing heart with a healthy one. The rest is up to us.If we take full responsibility for the upkeep of our bodies, we feed it nourishing fruits and vegetables, we exercise all our muscles to keep them strong, we learn to accept the lives we were given and be grateful for the abundance, for what could be more important in life. Love. Happiness. Peace.Before this echocardiogram, I was grateful for my heart and my breath. But seeing the heart in action instilled in me a greater appreciation of life and gratitude for the opportunity to be one with God’s creation.