By: Jenni Taylor, Co-founder

“I suppose in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go.” Life of Pi

Carl Sagan once said,

“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.”

I imagine a star, born in a nursery, it’s purpose a complete mystery to us as it grows older throughout eons. It eventually collapses in an explosion of light, giving back its nitrogen, its calcium, its iron and carbon. It gives these pieces of life back to the universe, to create more life.

Madeline L’Engle explored the idea of a star as a conscious being in her book A Wrinkle in Time. A star gives up her life in the fight against evil, taking away a bit of the darkness with her gift of life.

A book, too, can be a star, explosive material, capable of stirring up fresh life endlessly, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe

 Madeleine L’Engle says.

A star. A book. A person. Explosive. Capable of stirring up fresh life. A living fire to lighten the darkness.

If all of life is giving, an act of letting go as the author of Life of Pi suggests, then I decide to take a piece of spiritual wisdom from these giving stars, whose DNA is now my DNA. We are made of star stuff, stuff that was given to us freely to create life, stuff that will be given back to the universe when we die. Even the very air we breathe echoes this lesson, filling our lungs without question and flowing back out without hesitation.

If this is a spiritual truth, what is the universe asking us to give? What is it asking us to let go?

I think of the things I claim as My own- my time. My love. My money. My health. My body. My life. Mine, mine, mine.

Do I recognize these as gifts? Am I thankful for these gifts? Am I willing to give these gifts to others?

So I breathe, feeling the gift of life fill my lungs and just as quickly feel it leave again, and I imagine myself as a star. My life is a gift. Let my star stuff, the eternal pieces of me, flow out in love. The law of the universe says it will come back to me someday.