15,000 suns

6,500 light years from where you are right now is a star called RS Puppis. It is the brightest known Cepheids star in the Milky Way galaxy and it has used up most of its hydrogen fuel. It's getting tired, but it still burns at intervals. It pulsates rhythmically with a period of 41 days. Growing dimmer, then growing brighter. When it is at its brightest moment, it radiates as much light as 15,000 suns.

Fifteen thousand suns.

Not all the time,

not everyday,

because it can't.

It doesn't have much fuel left

but it has enough energy to pulsate.

It has enough energy to shine with the light of 15,000 suns.

It has enough light to reach the earth

6,500 hundred light years away.

I don't know much about space (however much I've geeked out over NASA since I was a little kid,) but I know one thing: space is dark. Stars that look like neighbors in a Hubble photo are actually millions of miles away from each other. There is no backup plan for a star running low on fuel. There are no other stars that can help it -- they smile briskly from light years away. But still, the RS Puppis pulsates in a 41 day cycle. Dimmer, then brighter. And at one point it shines with the light of 15,000 suns.

I don't know much about your life, but I know one thing: right now, it's looking dark. You feel lost and hollow and raw on the inside -- like you've swallowed too much sandpaper. You feel like you're running out of fuel. But you're wrong, my love. You have the power to outlast those stars around you. You have the power to pulsate a light echo that stretches across galaxies. Some days might be dimmer and some days might be brighter. But you, my love, have the power to shine with the light of 15,000 suns.

You are the world.

You are the crack in the door filled with light.

You are no excuse to stop burning and shining.

You're a star.


love,
abbiee