From the artist, Nina Montenegro: Close your eyes and picture everyone you have ever loved in a room with you-- looking at you adoringly, taking turns coming up to you to touch you on the hand, to kiss your forehead like when you were a child. Think of all the people who came decades and centuries before your birth, who couldn?t have possibly dreamt you up. Somehow they are still here, their bone dust a part of every living leaf, their souls in sunbeams, murmurations, dew on a spider?s web. ?And let me ask you this: the dead, where aren't they?? Franz Wright writes. All of the beings who came before are with us still, conspiring that we may be loved and provided for through the great mystery that is life. The resilience, tenacity, hope, and love they cultivated in their lives is all evidenced by our very existence! And all of that is braided into each one of us. Now think of your descendants ahead, who stretch out far into the expansive future. Somehow they are already here too, like latent seeds. And when we are feeling weak or lost, we can turn to all of them- our ancestors and our descendants- like stars, to help navigate us through. My friends, what an epic love story we are a part of.