<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 24px; ">You are cordially invited to join us for an Oral Tradition Poetry Salon </span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; "><span id="OLK_SRC_BODY_SECTION"><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="font-size: 14px; "><br></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="6"><b>Ripening</b></font></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><br></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><b><u>Saturday, August 16,</u> 2014 </b></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><b>7:00 PM</b> </div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><br></div><div style="font-size: 14px; ">at the home of Rebecca Evert</div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><b>7225 Palm Avenue, Sebastopol</b></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><br></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 24px; ">Seating is limited.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 24px; ">To reserve a space and to get directions, please contact Rebecca at <a href="mailto:revert@sonic.net">revert@sonic.net</a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 24px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#fb2d32">Do not reply to this message!</font></span></div></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 24px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#fb2d32"><br></font></span></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 24px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#fb2d32"><br></font></span></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><br></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">Ripening</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 22px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">The longer we are together</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">the larger death grows around us.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">How many we know by now</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">who are dead! We, who were young,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">now count the cost of having been.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">And yet as we know the dead</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">we grow familiar with the world.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">We, who were young and loved each other</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">ignorantly, now come to know</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">each other in love, married</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">by what we have done, </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">as much as by what we intend. </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">Our hair turns white with our ripening</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">as though to fly away in some</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">coming wind, bearing the seed</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">of what we know. It was bitter to learn</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">that we come to death as we come</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">to love, bitter to face</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">the just and solving welcome</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">that death prepares. But that is bitter</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">only to the ignorant, who pray</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">it will not happen. Having come</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">the bitter way to better prayer, we have</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">the sweetness of ripening. How sweet</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">to know you by the signs of this world!</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 22px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>- Wendell Berry</div></font></div></div></div></div></span></span></span></body></html>