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For years I was angry at my parents because I believed they hadn't loved me adequately while growing up. I suffered a lot due to this belief. To free myself, I created an imaginary Zen master and engaged in some dialogue in my journal. I was completely shocked by the turn this journal writing took when the Zen master pointed out that the belief that my parents didn't love me enough was based on a key illusion: Love would save me from death. When I realized love in fact can't save me from death the old suffering dissolved once and for all. I was free... to live my mortality.

Love can't undo our finiteness, but love can enable us to bear the unbearable. This was the essence of Corky's (our childhood dog who appeared to me in a dream a month before he died) message to me, which I wrote about in a previous post: We must continue on, lovingly. And so I have tried.

broken vase
restoring emptiness
piece by piece