Vi, you put it so eloquently...the aching void, the agony of absence, the questioning and growing into that "I'm okay". And Julie, I was really struck by your line "there is no one standing between us and mortality. We are next."

I've been traveling through it all because of so many losses lately. I think I've made it safely through, except for the lingering fear of "who's next?" At our age, most are going or on their way out, so more loss is inevitable, but that knowing still brings angst and sadness to my being.

But I'm trying to counter that fear and sadness with a growing sense of responsibility for myself to live each of MY days with abundant joy and meaning. And to love everyone I cherish with respect, compassion and mercy so that their lives are somehow easier and less fraught with agony and angst.

In the end, it really is love that matters, and love that pulls us through, isn't it. It's the love here at BWS that has been helping me to pick up the shattered pieces of my heart, put them back together again and find ways to live with more joy and hope than agony and angst. And it's the healing love I find here that makes me in turn want to companion others through their agony until they too can find some measure of joy and meaning in the midst of that loss and void.