Teyla laughs, though the smile that follows is tinged with melancholy. "Only if you wish to."

She pauses. "In the first year's ceremony, and often the second, there is very little conversation. Our minds cling to memory, to the pain of loss that is still so fresh. But in time we move on, forming new attachments, adjusting to life without those we have lost. The ceremony keeps us from forgetting, but it becomes less and less somber as the years pass."