Illustration and text by Susanne Gold

The atoms in my body are ancient – old, like the stones of the world and the stars in the firmament.

We can absorb and utilize the substances of our outside world, breathe, eat and drink. We are made of the same material our world is made of. We and everything around us is made of stardust, the remains of exploded stars.

The atoms of our body were created in this big bang of stars. For billions of years they have been travelling around the universe and the Earth. They have been guests in plants and animals. And now they belong to us. Temporarily. They connect with us for the time of our life and collapse into something else after our death.

Maybe Einstein was right, and there is a cosmic plan – but our brains are not capable of grasping it. Science and religion marvel at the same phantoms – at the fact that we and everything around us is part of a greater reality.

That is why we can believe in miracles, in our connection with everything and everyone and – in utopias.