This word came to me like a vision—a need to transform all I had left behind, the feeling of what was already healed. It’s like sitting down to ask how I can use what I’ve learned as a steady thread in my life so it won’t ambush me on every date, in every memory, with every scent or melody that dares to spark a different feeling. I’ll confess I spent hours before this word, meditating on what it could mean for me and what it might allow me to share. I tried to wander around the idea of rebuilding my feelings—or my thoughts about what I’d rather not remember—yet what returns, inevitably, every time I want to help or leave

It’s true that, in the midst of complex situations, it isn’t easy to keep the desire to stay on the course we’re meant to follow. Many times we feel tempted to stray—not out of curiosity or a need to try something new, but because we no longer understand what we’re doing, or simply because the will to continue fades away. Call it discouragement, laziness, or sorrow; or perhaps the path itself, unintentionally, leads us to a place we don’t understand. Deep down, we feel that this unknown destination makes no sense: it’s a road we’re supposed to take, yet we no longer know where it’s leading us. I’m speaking, among other things, about the need to heal—to leave behind a