is making life in little alchemy 2 even possible at the moment?

lightning + primordial soup gets you there too, if you already made soup earlier. and once life is in, a lot of the next stuff is just life + something, so it opens up fast.

yeah it's possible. life is swamp + energy. most people who get stuck here just haven't made swamp yet, which is mud + plant, so if plant is what you're missing, go after that first and life follows pretty quickly.