Laurie:   When you notice that you are seeking, with pendular effort, to resolve your desire to be free with your desire to engage in deep intimacy, you must remember the advice of the great ocean-teacher who counseled you one year as you walked the sandy edge of its immensity.  While you watched the gamut of rolling and crashing waves, either inching forward or sprinting madly to shore…of watercolor skies and distant storms reflecting their faces in the receptive sea…of shy and gregarious tides subtly whittling and boldly sculpting the shoreline, you learned about character and all of its dimensions.  On some days you found yourself loving the placid palette of color you encountered; other days you felt your heart backing away from the blunt anger and uncontained fury you met.  But whatever its mood, you trusted the ocean not to pretend to be other than itself, not to make excuses for its divinely given nature.  You appreciated that honesty.  And eventually, it released you to follow the same example to live according to all of your contours, knowing that sometimes this unconcealed way appears sleek and elegant, other times fickle or self-seeking.  But always, when you express your unclad essence, there is no struggle for balance…there is only creation.

Sam:   You yearn for new experiences to help you to reinterpret life.  And you repeatedly discover that these pursuits bring you supreme satisfaction and soulful rejuvenation—as well as encourage your development.  By contrast, when you turn away from this quest and accept a stable course for your days, you feel as though you are suffocating…since given the size and complexity of the world, you know that there is always something for you to learn, some new wonder to behold.  But in spite of all of this, a paradoxical twist in your disposition leads your placid nature to easily settle into any situation, thereby undermining your need to grow beyond yourself.  And this, coupled with the fact that you always “bounce back” quickly from even the most devastating disruptions to your life, makes it urgent that you remember how life threatening it is for you to accept and stagnate now, during this time when Laurie can no longer illuminate alternatives that escape your vision and paths that unfold beneath your feet.  You must not extinguish that childlike wonder that has yet to dim…for one death in your marriage is enough for now.