ABSTRACT
I find it curious, but not surprising, that the portion of this book on healing is so short. Throughout the last several centuries, readers of Dante’s Inferno and Purgatorio have far outnumbered those who have read his Paradiso. Apparently, suffering in the journey engages us more intensely than reaching the gates, beyond which our experience has not been as instructive. Folktales often begin with a state of deprivation—there is a famine, the King’s daughter is without a prince, etc.—and the thrust of the plot is the unfolding of this dilemma and movement toward resolution. However, once the deprivation is met and a sense of balance returns (typified sometimes as happily ever after), there is no more story to be told. I have elicited from within myself a range of stories about my grief, but do not have as many to share about my healing. I recognize that I am still in the early stages of this healing, and more insights will emerge as I mature with the process. Also, I sense that the healing is more often the spaces between the words, being as it soothes, but not full of telling. At least, not yet… .
