Hauntings of unfulfilled longings, failures, things not yet mastered or achieved, life’s accusations, the disowned and darkest parts of the self that need our recognition, these are like bats flying about in my mind and I think of the quote from Rainer Maria Rilke in one of his Elegies, this quote is not exact but close: “Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are merely princesses who are waiting to see us be for once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest core something helpless that wants our love.”

To love the demons, love their vulnerability, their passions and questions – this is the work. To suppress or remonstrate or lobotomize them is to lose. I love my demons even as they have power to destroy me. They need my love.