Dust to dust

Parents are not supposed to outlive their children, yet it happens. There is no answer to why, only pain, loss. I can't help but believe that when a parent is lost, the child feels pain as strongly. We humans are built to feel pain and joy, despair and elation, birth and death.

Why is that? Why do we need to be so attached that a loss takes away from our being? Love is the mechanism that gives us the strength to extend our species beyond today. Love is how we pair up, mate, and offer up the next generation.

Love offers the strength to suffer, rebound, and rejoice. Love is how we journey into the abyss and return.