From my brother Karl. For him, and my sister, and my parents, and a missed family vacation this week in my childhood summer home.
"There
is nothing that can replace the absence of someone dear to us, and one
should not even attempt to do so. One must simply hold out and endure
it. At first that sounds very hard, but at the same time it is also a
great comfort. For to the extent the emptiness truly remains unfilled
one remains connected to the other person through it. It is wrong to say
that God fills the emptiness. God in no way
fills it but much more leaves it precisely unfilled and thus helps us
preserve -- even in pain -- the authentic relationship. Furthermore,
the more beautiful and full the remembrances, the more difficult the
separation. But gratitude transforms the torment of memory into silent
joy. One bears what was lovely in the past not as a thorn but as a
precious gift deep within, a hidden treasure of which one can always be
certain."
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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