<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=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Becoming</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=""><i style="font-size: 14px;" class="">The hurt you embrace becomes joy. </i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i style="font-size: 14px;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>—Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, , trans. Coleman Barks, “Silkworms,”</i></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="">To wake and not want</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">to change anything. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">To let the heart feel</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">what it feels. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">To be disarmed,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">defenseless</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and so alive.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">There are days</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">love claims us </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">so utterly</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">we unfold </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">into the moment,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">whatever it holds,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">certain we were made for it.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Nothing has prepared us</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">for this.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Everything </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">has prepared us</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">for this. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer</div></div></body></html>