person. yet i wonder, if we might find these murky waters of tears easier to manage were we to bring with us a bigger boat and a stronger paddle. if we bring to grief the truth that love can never be lost, because it was in us all along, then maybe our ache will look different. of course we will weep to once again feel the experience of the “other”, but we can rest in that we have not nor will we ever lose the love they awakened within us. for once you have lit the eternal flame, you have begun the journey that neither begins, nor ends, but “was, 