We don't think about what it would be like to watch everything you love burn down. We don't think about it because we believe it will not happen. At the very least we hope that it will not happen. We don't think about seeing someone that we cared dearly for pulled from the flickering, destroying hell. We don't think about it, because we believe it cannot happen.

We fool ourselves, because it can and will happen. It has happened to someone before, it will happen to someone soon, and it is happening to someone now. We curse our gods, we cry, we scream, and we rebuild. But do we move on? Is it possible after seeing, smelling, and knowing? People that have things taken from them by forces of nature, can they… can we grow past that? Or is that what makes us grow?

Time tells all tales and tall tales. We don't get to chose where we begin, and we have too much choice as to where it ends. The stars will one day be right to start our story, on that day we must reach out with fear in our hearts into great adversity. It is that adversity that gives us the satisfaction at the end of our tale, it is that fear that makes us brave, and it is that reach which makes us strong.

Stare into the flame, you must be the one to pull your love from peril, and you must be the one to cope with their fate. Grief is a powerful thing, but it is only one thing, and all it does is inspire the war within us. Grieving is the act of waging war, moving on is a victory, living to fight again is winning. I have looked into the fire, I smelt the smoke and known the ash, and I have pulled that which I loved from it, and I have moved on. There are times when we will look back, this is fine, with every new glance back we see a battle that has left scars, with every scar we see our own ability to heal.

Know that all pain is temporary just as all joy is fleeting, a life without pain is no life, a life without joy is a life not worth living. “All things will pass” is not seen as an encouraging slogan, as one day we know that our greatest cities and statues, our shrines and the gods they picture, our words and our thoughts will eventually be dust. Listen now, though, I speak from experience, when I say all things will pass I mean that so will your agony, even the deepest cuts one day reform into your skin, and there will be no trace of them.

Take comfort in the knowledge that none of this is new and that it will never be irrelevant. Grief and pain have always and will always exist. Yes, take comfort in knowing that you have never been alone in agony, that you never will be, this is not vindictive, this is coping.

Our story does not end with grief, there is so much more within us that needs to be told. We are the ones that must live these anecdotes, we are the ones that must see to it that we reach the proper end. Pain is not where we lay down our bodies and give up the tale, it is simply another chapter.