"The absence of suffering?" That sounded quite determined. "So instead of being active for happiness, you have to be active to prevent suffering? Does that mean that you think that happiness or pleasure or all those similar can't be achieved through passivity? Something you always have to work for?"

She was going to finish that pastry, after all. The taste was almost gone from her mouth, and Susan knew that she rather renewed it than lost it.

"Everything is balance and in it." She shrugged a shoulder. "It's not an exciting lesson to learn or share, but it's a necessary one. That's how I feel."