<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 dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><h1 class="entry-title" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; line-height: 1.3em; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><span style="font-weight: normal;" class=""><font size="4" class="">Born Again</font></span></h1><div class="entry-content" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">Let’s be clear about this:<br class="">It isn’t the same as being sick<br class="">and getting better. It isn’t<br class="">changing your mind at the last minute<br class="">or pushing away from the brink.<br class="">The only way to be born again<br class="">is to die. The Phoenix doesn’t just<br class="">go up in a blaze of glory. It<br class="">feels the fire lick up and sizzle<br class="">every feather, until each quill becomes<br class="">a column of flame carried straight to the core.<br class="">Whatever the legend of re-birth, there is always<br class="">time in the fire, under the ground,<br class="">hanging on the cross or the tree.<br class="">Don’t skip over that part of the story.<br class="">If you would be reborn, you have to die.<br class="">But what then? After the dying<br class="">how are we to rise again into new life?<br class="">The earth, the hero, the god, you and I—<br class="">how does any of us find our way back<br class="">from the Valley of the Shadow?<br class="">The same way we die:<br class="">Walk into the light.</p><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Lynn Ungar</div></div></div></body></html>