An English professor at college once told our class about how he dealt with the death of a close friend. He said he went home and played a recording of the saddest music he knew. He plunged into the darkness; he acknowledged his grief and allowed it to pour out. He knew that the only way he could get beyond his loss was to allow himself to feel the pain in all its intensity. In the same way, if we evade the darkness in our lives, we deny some of the most significant portions of our personal and collective experiences.

Helen M. Luke, The Way of Woman