Happy Independence Day!

Fourth of July celebrations this year were spent at our home away from home - The Colony, at Edgewater, New Jersey.

More so than at any other time in our lives, celebrating Independence Day, especially with our loved ones, grows more valuable for us here at wonder | wonder | women.

Jerry Waxman, popular and distinguished professor of astronomy and environmental science, captures our sentiments exactly in his book, Astronomical Tidbits. 

We are stardust. We are Golden.

There is a fundamental reason why we look at the sky with wonder and longing—for the same reason that we stand, hour after hour, gazing at the distant swell of the open ocean. 

as above. . . .

. . . .so below

There is something like an ancient wisdom, encoded and tucked away in our DNA, that knows its point of origin as surely as a salmonid knows its creek. 

Intellectually, we may not want to return there, but the genes know, and long for their origins—their home in the salty depths. 

But if the seas are our immediate source, the penultimate source is certainly the heavens. . . .The spectacular truth is—and this is something that your DNA has known all along—the very atoms of your body—the iron, calcium, phosphorus, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and on and on—were initially forged in long-dead stars. 

butterfly bush & buddha head

This is why, when you stand outside under a moonless, country sky, you feel some ineffable tugging at your innards. We are star stuff. Keep looking up. 

We've got to get ourselves back to the Garden. 

As we feasted on our traditional July 4 barbecue, we digested Waxman's scattering of favorite morsels - an offering we encourage you to consume as your appetite dictates. 

Dip into the history of astronomy and the cosmos, to be experienced as one might consume bonbons or - for those looking to return to earthier roots - tomatoes, potatoes and spinach.