“There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” — Leonard Cohen, based on Rumi 

Grief makes us gentle, because it opens out hearts and stops our minds, if only briefly. It shows us what’s really important in life (love) and renders everything else pretty much meaningless. The gift in this is that we can make the most of the time we do have, ourselves and with each other, of all species. This first hit me after my three closest (human) friends died in a two-year period, when I was in my early 20s, but I found it coming up again after Hedda died. There is no escape; the only way out is through…and in that process, there’s a transformation.

Photo by Lina White on Unsplash