<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; line-height: normal;" class="">For the Living</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">It is the work of the living</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">to grieve the dead. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">It is our work to wake each day, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">to live into the world that is. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">It is our work to weep, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and it is our work to be healed. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Some part of us knows </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">not only the absence of our beloveds, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">but also their presence, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">how they continue to teach us, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">how they invite us to grow. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">It is our work to be softened by loss, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">to be undone, destroyed, remade.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Wounded, we recoil, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and it is our work to notice how, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">like crushed and trampled grass, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">we spring back. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">It is our work to meet death again</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and again and again, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and though it aches to be open, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">it is our work to be opened, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">to live into the opening</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">until we know ourselves</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">as blossoms nourished from within</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">by the radiance of the ones </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">who are no longer physically here.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class="">They have given us their love light to carry. </i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">It is our work to be in service to that light. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" 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>- Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer</div><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></p><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class="">*paraphrased from Wendy Videlock</i></div><div class=""><i class=""><br class=""></i></div></body></html>