For Bette, freedom was a happiness that was intrinsically bound to that of another.

 So Jodi had given her something she would never have had the strength to ask for; the greatest gift one human being could ever give another; she let her go, knowing that Bette could never give anyone something that already belonged to someone else.

Bette ran her finger over the edge of the envelope, opening it and removing its contents.

Inside she found a handwritten note on one page and a poem by T.S. Eliot on the second.

Bette,

The paths of life are littered with the mistakes we’ve made and the pain we have caused.

But these mistakes are not meant to cripple, but instead, to empower. Live your life Bette.

Love your work, but don’t let it define you.

For it is only through mistakes that we learn: about ourselves; about others. If we do not change and grow as a result of the paths that we take, what have we learned? What was the point in any of it?

Never stop learning Bette. You have been given a second chance.

A chance to learn from your mistakes, and grow.

To create hope from regret; happiness from devastation; to create a new life from the death of the old.

I don’t regret the time we spent together. You are a part of my life of which I will always be proud. I have learned so many lessons from loving you, and from letting you go.  Don’t worry about me; I will be ok.

In me you will always find a friend. You are the lesson I have learned. In this poem you will find enlightenment and strength.

Always,

Jodi

T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding”

V.

What we call the beginning is often the end

And to make an end is to make a beginning.

The end is where we start from. And every phrase

And sentence that is right (where every word is at home,

Taking its place to support the others,

The word is neither diffident nor ostentatious,

An easy commerce of the old and the new,

The common word exact without vulgarity,

The formal word precise but not pedantic,

The complete consort dancing together)

Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning…

With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this Calling

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

Through the unknown, remembered gate

When the last of earth left to discover

Is that which was the beginning;

At the source of the longest river

The voice of the hidden waterfall

And the children in the apple-tree

Not known, because not looked for

But heard, half-heard, in the stillness

Between two waves of the sea.

Quick now, here, now, always-

A condition of complete simplicity

(Costing not less than everything)

And shall be well and

All manner of things shall be well

When the tongues of flame are in-folded

Into the crowded knot of fire

And the fire and the rose are one.