Light, i.e. photons, travel at the maximum speed we know of in the universe.
Einstein’s e=mc^2^ shows us that when “the speed of light” is achieved travel forward or backward on the time line is possible.
Therefore a photon exists only for an instantaneous amount of time, regardless of how far it travels, from the perspective of the photon.
The light that the JWST captures from 12.3 billion years ago is that old to us. To the photon, however, it was created in that stellar object and then immediately crashed into the JWST sensor.
The membrane of time is what we perceive not what the photon experiences.
The ‘canvas’ which everything else resides upon is currently thought to be Quantum Fields: Quantum Fields: The Real Building Blocks of the Universe - with David Tong. (A 1h video by a theoretical particle physicist that’s in layman’s term, very educational and downright LOL funny at times. Well worth your time!)
A Field is something that permeates the entire universe. There’s thought to be a field for every particle in the Standard Model. Electron, photon, charm, up, etc. A particle forms when the field is excited, and these particles interact with each other to form the universe.
The best advice I have is one I found on the internet: Whenever you walk through a room pick something up and dispose of it, or put it back in its place.