<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">The Dakini Speaks</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">My friends, let's grow up.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Let's stop pretending we don't know the deal here.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Or if we truly haven't noticed, let's wake up and notice.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Look: Everything that can be lost, will be lost.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">It's simple - how could we have missed it for so long?</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Let's grieve our losses fully, like human ripe beings.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">But please, let's not be so shocked by them. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Let's not act so betrayed,</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">As though life had broken her secret promise to us.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Impermanence is life's only promise to us,</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">And she keeps it with ruthless impeccability.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">To a child, she seems cruel, but she is only wild,</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">And her compassion exquisitely precise.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Brilliantly penetrating, luminous with truth,</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">She strips away the unreal to show us the real.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">This is the true ride - let's give ourselves to it!</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Let's stop making deals for a safe passage -</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">There isn't one anyway, and the cost is too high.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">We are not children anymore.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">The true human adult gives everything for what cannot be lost. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Let's dance the wild dance of no hope.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Jennifer Wellwood</span></div></body></html>