...Months after that fierce long storm of tragic events – everything fell silent around her. Casually she mentioned to an acquaintance what had occurred in the last year. Hearing the stories again somehow made the unreal real – she felt desperate. After her voice trailed off there was a period of silence, then he said, "emptiness transforms the personal landscape".... as she heard the words on the other end of the phone, she immediately wrote them down with a green permanent marker and taped the torn piece of scrap paper below Australia on the world map above her desk. Deep into the depths of winter she read about dark matter and black holes where everything disappears and collapses onto itself, and about contrasting dark energy constantly expanding outward.... In the coming months as the landscape changed and the transformations started to take hold, she walked ahead through all of it with volition....