Stellar Theology: Star Stuff

One of my all-time favorite young adult authors is Katherine Paterson. If I ever do a Young Adult Book month (like I’ve done for Children’s Books), I will definitely include her 1981 Newbury Medal winning, “Jacob Have I Loved.” One of her later novels is called “The Same Stuff as Stars,” published in 2002. It’s about an eleven-year-old girl who lacks stability in her home life. Her dad is imprisoned and her mom abandoned her and her younger brother at their great-grandmother’s farmhouse. The one place where she begins to find hope and a sense of steadiness again is from a neighbor who teaches her about the stars. In their first conversation, this neighbor tells her, “The same elements, the same materials that make those stars up there is what makes you. You’re made from star stuff.” The girl replies that that doesn’t make sense, as the stars are shining up in the sky and she’s on the ground, not shining. He replies, “Well yes, but that doesn’t mean you’re made from different stuff. Just that something different is happening to those same elements. You’re still close kin to the stars.” (p. 80).

Another favorite author I only discovered a few years ago is Jan Richardson. She is best known for her books of blessings, especially one called “The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief.” However, her newest one, released just six months ago, is called “How the Stars Get in Your Bones: A Book of Blessings.” “How the Stars Get in Your Bones” is a poem in a series of blessings of healing, which uses gentle metaphors to convey images of peace and love.

For months, I had trouble reconciling the two titles: “The Same Stuff as Stars” and “How the Stars Get in Your Bones.” How can both be true? Either the star stuff is there, or it’s not. I struggled with even getting into the book of blessings, until I used the title as a writing prompt and wrote my own poem: (I firmly believe that all good art inspires more art.)

How the Stars Get in Your Bones

Do they get in, one by one,

Speck by speck,

Gradually building

And becoming more than the sum of their parts

Until you are shiny

And radiate cosmic energy?

No, they start there all along.

Do you not know? Have you not heard?

You are made of the same stuff as stars.

You can already radiate cosmic energy

And expose what is hidden.

Dust off your bones.

You’re already shiny.

You were shiny all along.

You’ve had the ability to radiate cosmic energy all along.

You’ve had the power to nurture life and enhance growth and reveal.

Why did it get covered up with grime and soot, with dust and ashes?

Fear.

Fear of standing out, of rejection, of the power to change the world.

Fear of scarcity, of not enough-ness, of difference.

Fear of losing control, losing shininess, losing yourself.

But fear does not get the last word.

Love does.

Love yourself. Take care of yourself.

Wash off the layers of grit.

Treat yourself gently.

Remember, you’re used to the grime.

It will take time, likely.

Your bones aren’t used to showing the stars that are in them.

When your body has learned to hide, it takes time for your body to learn it’s okay to not hide,

To trust the open sky

That’s full of stars

Just like you.