There is nothing quite like being outside on a starry night—one where there are no city lights to dim the view of the celestial world above your head. It can feel like the heavens are so close that they might actually come down to touch you.

The cosmos instinctively inspires wonder and awe.

Well, did you know that we are made of stardust?  That you are made up of old stars in the actual fabric of your being? It is a wonder-full realization to acknowledge that all of life on Earth and the atoms in our bodies were “created in the furnace of now-long-dead stars” (see Are We Really Made of Stars?). "It's a great human-interest story that we are now able to map the abundance of all of the major elements found in the human body across hundreds of thousands of stars in our Milky Way" says Jennifer Johnson, the science team chair of the SDSS-III APOGEE survey and a professor at The Ohio State University.

Isn’t that amazing! The wonder of the celestial world is within you today.

In Carl Sagan’s words, "We are a way for the universe to know itself. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return. And we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We're made of star stuff."

You are of the stars. I feel inspired when I read those words and something opens in me that yearns to connect beyond the limitations of my circumstances—to open into the surrounding largeness and vastness of Space. And, this allows me to feel more Space within me. I feel my perspective shift and my horizon open when I allow my star-like essence to connect with source. Might this even expand and enrich my Umvelt—to encourage me to feel into what I cannot see and yet know deep within my tissue and cells?

Wonder carries us beyond our self and connects us into the deeper, wiser, more full expression of the world around us. We are invited into a different form of conversation that extends beyond what we call ‘human communication’ to open us into the natural world around us, the inner ocean within us, and the essence of what makes us up that is Cosmic.

May these simple reflections be like light shining on a multi-faceted jewel to reflect more of your wonder-full nature back to you. Wherever you are, no matter what you are facing or how you perceive this season in your life, feel the richness of your cosmic, oceanic, deeply wise Umvelt, and let the energy of this new positioning be what opens and surprises you during this Winter season.

And remember, you are made of the stuff of Stars💫.

In wonder,

Annmarie