Clare’s meditations on love, loss, and longing show that she, like Richard, is learning to live in the here and now, even if doing so causes her pain. When she posits that experiencing—and then losing—bliss is preferable to never experiencing bliss at all, she’s implicitly drawing from her own experience missing Henry when he’s time traveling to empathize with and comfort Richard as he grieves Annette. Despite the pain that continues to plague characters as they mourn their personal losses, Clare’s observation about everything in the “here and now” being perfect reaffirms the importance of owning and feeling the pain of loss.