<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">For This, I Walk Outside<b><o:p></o:p></b></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;"> </p><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">Not to escape the world,<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">but to be more wholly in it. <o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">Sharp cold stings my cheeks—<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">not like a slap, but like the thrilling burn<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">of whiskey as it blazes down the throat—<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">the kind of wild aliveness<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">that brooks no choice <o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">but to wake up to life,<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">to champion it, to know life<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">as the most wondrous thing<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">even as I steep in the ugliness<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">we humans commit.<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">This is what life asks of us.<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">I walk outside to be more wholly here,<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">here the way the Stellar’s jay is here.<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">Even on the coldest day, <o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">its every fluffing, every peck, every head bob,<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">every flight is in service to life.<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">It’s never confused about its purpose.<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">I want to be in service.<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">Outside, everything is teacher:<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">the cold, the snow, the bird, the day,<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">this fallible, fabulous human race,<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">this improbable, beautiful planet in space.<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">To serve life, I must inhabit it wholly<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">and be inhabited by it, too.<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">As if it all could end tonight.<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;">As if it goes on forever. <o:p></o:p></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;"> </p><div style="margin: 0in; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif;"> - Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer</div></div></body></html>