publishing peace

Have you ever had an ache? I'm being serious. Has there ever been a pain that persisted, maybe in your back or your hands or your head, that was relentless? Something that, no matter what you tried, was just kind of always there, in the back of your mind, so you could never really be comfortable? I have had such an ache in my physical body. It's distracting. It's sometimes debilitating -- sometimes it's impossible to do anything without thinking about the ache. I think everyone has experienced and will experience these physical aches. Something we talk about less, though, are the emotional aches. Sometimes these aches are the result of the actions of other people -- to have any kind of fulfilling relationship at all, we have to risk hurting and being hurt by people. It is also, like a physical ache, something that happens to everyone at some point or another; nobody I'm aware of hasn't experienced to some degree the loss of a love or a friendship or the loneline