<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Lead</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Here is a story</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">to break your heart.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Are you willing?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">This winter</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">the loons came to our harbor</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and died, one by one,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">of nothing we could see.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">A friend told me</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">of one on the shore</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">that lifted its head and opened</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">the elegant beak and cried out</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">in the long, sweet savoring of its life</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">which, if you have heard it,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">you know is a sacred thing,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and for which, if you have not heard it,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">you had better hurry to where</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">they still sing.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">And, believe me, tell no one</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">just where that is.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The next morning</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">this loon, speckled</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and iridescent and with a plan</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">to fly home</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">to some hidden lake,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">was dead on the shore.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I tell you this</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">to break your heart,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">by which I mean only</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">that it break open and never close again</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">to the rest of the world.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Mary Oliver</div><div class="">
<div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: rgb(16, 24, 32); font-family: Joanna, Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 243);" class=""><div style="font-size: 15px;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(16, 24, 32); font-family: Joanna, Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 243);" class=""><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><br class=""></span></div><div style="font-size: 15px;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(16, 24, 32); font-family: Joanna, Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 243);" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div style="font-size: 15px;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(16, 24, 32); font-family: Joanna, Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 243);" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div style="font-size: 15px;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(16, 24, 32); font-family: Joanna, Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 243);" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div style="font-size: 15px;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(16, 24, 32); font-family: Joanna, Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 243);" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div style="font-size: 15px;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(16, 24, 32); font-family: Joanna, Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 243);" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div style="font-size: 15px;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(16, 24, 32); font-family: Joanna, Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 243);" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div style="font-size: 15px;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(16, 24, 32); font-family: Joanna, Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 243);" class=""><br class=""></span></div><i style="font-size: 12px;" class="">We are talking only to ourselves. We are not talking to the rivers, we are not listening to the wind and stars. We have broken the great conversation. By breaking that conversation we have shattered the universe. All the disasters that are happening now are a consequence of that spiritual “autism.”</i></span><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(16, 24, 32); font-family: Joanna, Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 243); font-size: 12px;" class=""><i class=""><br class=""></i></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(16, 24, 32); font-family: Joanna, Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 243); font-size: 12px;" class=""><i class="">- Thomas Berry</i></span></div></div>
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