Ask Baba Yaga: My Best Friend Just Got Engaged and All I Can Do Is Weep

Transcript after the jump.

Dear Baba Yaga,
My best friend just got engaged and all I can do is weep, left alone as the last of the single ladies in my circle of friends. How do I suck it up, move on, and be happy for her and her happiness when all I do is fear I will die alone, eaten by squirrels and badgers in the wilderness? How do I find my own happiness along the way?

BABA YAGA:
Everyone dies, alone in their own cauldron — yr death will be no more or less gruesome than any other’s. & happiness is a thing that passes through you, not a thing you meet & hold in yr deathly grip for ever afterwards. You are afraid; of being the last at a party without the others, but the others have gone on into a wood they do not, understand. It is the same wood you stand in, weeping. & the trees look at all of you the same, & say nothing.

Previously:: “I Feel Tired and Powerless and Ill When I Spend Time With My Family”

Taisia Kitaiskaia is a poet, writer, and Michener Center for Writers fellow. She’s taking questions on behalf of Baba Yaga at [email protected].