This week, with the discovery of a carbon-based molecule in a planet-forming disk, seemed like a good time to post this painting that merges trees and stars. So I offer the Yggdrasil Nebula. The Tree of Life, born from the death of a star and a bearer of new stars to come. Everything we know, everything we are, was created in the lives and deaths of stars. Imagine the many worlds that could be born and held in such a nebula, like any other mythical tree that connects the realms of life, death, gods, and monsters in its roots and branches.
When the world feels suffocating and small, when the lift to forge a better way of living feels insurmountable, I find comfort in the perspective that we are but one possible iteration of life in an enormous universe we hardly understand. Everyone on Earth, human and non-human kin, was born from stars and I find that connection awe-inspiring. No matter who you are – your heritage, creed, religion, socioeconomic status – we share this history.
We are carbon, we are trees, we are stars.
Letters from the Dark Forest 