Love - Understanding

I recently experienced the pain of a pet's passing. We exist in a world of dualities; to enjoy a deep level of love and connection with an animal. We must one day suffer pain when their incarnation is complete. Though the pain still consumes me I try to replace it with greater understanding.

"How can I, who knows the body to be perishable and the soul to be imperishable, mourn over the separation of the body from the soul?" -Mahatma Gandhi

Resistance to change is painful, the past six years have been in close companionship. We shared morning, daily, and nightly routines involving love and interaction. A part of me still yearns to hold her in my arms again. Though I do not want to remember Sugar in pain, she deserves to be remembered in love. I take comfort in knowing the gift of her presence, the love and light she radiated will always be with me.

A section from "The Prophet" By, Kahlil Gibran:

And your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.

And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;
And you would accept the season of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.

Much of your pain is self-chosen.
It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquility.

For his hand though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the unseen,
And the cup he brings, though it burns your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with his own sacred tears.