A friend lost and finally, truly mourned, with the guilt burned off him so that only the love was left.

A son kept.

A stranger’s child turned toward the sky.

It did not balance.

The ledgers of a life never balance the way the ledgers of a business do; you do not get back what you lost, and the new things are not payment for the old ones.

But you can hold all of it at once, the loss and the gift together, and not be destroyed by the holding.

She had not been able to do that eighteen months ago.