It’s been about a year since a very close friend of mine died in a sudden and difficult way. The passing of this friend, as well as the months leading up to it and the emotions that arose in its wake, coloured my past year in very significant ways. It was the closest and rawest that death has touched my life up to this point, and though this experience challenged and rocked me to the core, it has also been one of the most profound, humbling, eye opening and heart deepening things I have gone through.