AN IMPORTANT LESSON ON LOVING

I arrived after a long and tiring journey from our mountain home to be with my mother, and in the evening she went on and on about how she was dying, only waiting for me to arrive, and telling some old stories over and over. As usual, unable to handle it, I just turned to my smartphone and started to play backgammon, and feel dreadful that I wasn't being a good daughter, maybe this time, after a thousand times of threatening to, she was really going to die? I turned to her and stroked her hair and face and she calmed down instantly. In situations like this you can't go into regret, or fear of her passing, or suffer with her suffering, or become hard hearted, but just stop, be present, and love. That is all that is needed.