The challenge and conundrum are to integrate within ourselves the dark/light cycles of the natural world, yet flourish in times of grief and pain. But how does one lose and be grateful? How does one create harmony between body and soul? Here we explore the lessons of a snail wedded to the earth, astute in its slowness, in its minute shadow; we listen for the small-throated life; we adopt the unapologetic, razor eyes of the raven. Questions lived and explored evoke shadow-answers and other questions. What lessons can be culled in the light of healing? What can we learn by entering moments closely? The suddenness of a death can bring us back to the radiance of the small: to see by means of black and to be at home in suffering.