Yes, we too are stardust.

- Alberto Knox to Sophie on Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World.

One of the world's visionaries recently died.

One of my blood relatives left the earth, too. Most of my friends' parents are dearly departed, most of us are already "orphans" so to speak. At 32, I may not have seen deaths because of war or famine, but I have seen my own share, may it be because of an illness or a tragic accident. I have known enough peers who tried to shorten their own life, and I have to admit that there were times that I contemplated it too.

So many news about death and suffering. The other day, I bought the latest Time magazine just because it has a free Sidetrip travel mag in it, besides I thought, I hardly have any task at work that day, might as well have something to read. But the news in it were disheartening, more bad news than good. I flipped the pages of the travel mag, and all I saw were more ads than travel reviews. I checked my inbox to read flash fiction to get my mind off things, but most of them have zombie/apocalypse/dystopian future themes. I wanted to get myself back in the zone. All I've been seeing are the bad things that are happening directly to me, to other people I know, and all I notice are the different quirks that I hate in other people. I have to stop.

Thank God for friends and a bestfriend.

I didn't have to tell them all the things that's bugging me. One good friend/officemate that I've been friends with, spanning two companies that I've been employed in, helped me try to get rid of my negativity. Gave me spiritual advice, despite the fact that I haven't told all the details of my many worries and grief. I am thankful for her.

My bestfriend is also my life partner. He pointed out the good things that I always conveniently forget whenever I get stressed and worried. I sometimes feel like I have a learning deficiency when it comes to counting my blessings. I easily drown myself by the tide of those worries.

My sister is almost like me, and whenever we get the blues, it's good that we get to talk, even if it's just online. And then we remember to realize, "Wait a minute, this is nothing, I'm stronger than this."

At this point I am not sure what this post's point is. But what I've been mulling about in my head, that have somehow connected all the recent things I've seen, experienced, involved in, is that we are all but stardust, thoughts that I read from Sophie's world (it was a required reading for a Philo class in college, but I've reread it through the years and got more than just facts on the history of philosophy). Returning to dust is also a biblical reference. But the author somehow made the dust connection more powerful (from my point of view) with the stardust discourse of the two main characters.

You see the shining stars in the sky, that have once been nothing but individual elements, just as what humans are, we were nothing more but a collection of different elements from your chemistry's periodic table that have somehow bonded together to be the living-breathing creations that we are. When our time comes and we eventually turn to dust, we are but potential matter/ingredient that bonds to other matter for the creation of future stars or planets.

We can have different philosophies when it comes to the afterlife or spirituality, religion or the lack of it. But the truth is, we are nothing more but a chemical reaction/creation of bits of pieces of things from everything around us. A dead star's element may have contributed to our physical being, in the end, we too are stardust.

I don't have a photo of stars, I have a lot of sky photos though. But this one, is a photo of an attempt to render the sky the way I saw it one sunny afternoon in UP campus. (I used oil pastels.)

I miss doing some artwork.

PEACE