by Jude Watson
. . . I live with the heartbreak of losing her. But I am living, Obi-Wan. I am continuing to walk the Jedi path.
This was what he had learned — the Jedi had kept him from her. But the Jedi had taught him how to live with losing her.
Obi-Wan stood by the window. The blues and grays outside were changing, warming to pink. Orange streaks lit the sky. The space lanes were beginning to fill up with flashes of silver. Another day. Another mission.
He was ready. He had learned something else, something important. Once he'd thought he had to lock away memories of love. Now he was no longer afraid of them. He could live with them. He could breathe in his sadness and remember his joy.
At last he had learned the secret that Qui-Gon had always tried to teach him. It had taken him years of loss to learn it. It had taken a death that had sent him to his knees. But he had finally learned it. He had learned to live with an open heart.