And another thought: Isn’t the path of pain like water damage in a house or apartment? Water can seep into the building from wherever, lurk in the joists and studs for a while – and then blister the basement wall or crater the kitchen ceiling.

This thing we call pain plays with the same energies. It hides out because it’s not wanted. Yet it’s a living thing. It finds a back door. Or broken pipe.

K, who should be nominated for sainthood, was sitting beside a folder at her desk with a restraining order against her husband. He’s been blowing up in anger, and had threatened her. But K didn’t want to take action against him. Her family wants her to. She’s the breadwinner, he’s down on himself. He was abusing a hard drug, and now K says he’s abusing alcohol. She had filed for divorce earlier this year, and then reconciled. She’s attached to him. She asked me what she should do?