<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></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;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">The Loved Ones</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">The loved ones we call the dead</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">depart from us and for a while</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">are absent. And then as if</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">called back by our love, they come</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">near us again. They enter our dreams.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">We feel they have been near us</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">when we have not thought of them.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">They are simply here, simply waiting</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">while we are distracted among</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">our obligations. At last</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">it comes to us: They live now</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">in the permanent world.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">We are the absent ones.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><div style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Wendell Berry</span></div></div></body></html>