When we step outside on a clear night and look up at the velvet expanse of the cosmos, we are engaging in a magnificent form of time travel. Because light takes time to traverse the immense distances of space, the twinkling photons striking our retinas tonight left their stellar homes years, centuries, or even millennia ago. That distant star shining above your garden might have changed or shifted, yet its gentle ancient light is only just arriving to greet your eyes. There is something deeply comforting about this cosmic delay. It means that the universe is woven together by a gentle persistence, where nothing beautiful is ever truly lost. The photons of a long-dead star continue their journey across the dark, eventually landing softly on a quiet leaf, a rooftop, or the face of someone looking up in wonder. We are all made of stardust, cradled in a vast, patient universe that has been whispering its luminous stories across the dark for ages, reminding us that we belong to something wonderfully timeless and serene.