<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><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">Subject: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><b class="">Poem read at Mastery</b><br class=""></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">Date: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">October 8, 2021 at 1:16:00 PM PDT<br class=""></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><br class=""><div class=""><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">Ages</div><p class="gmail-MsoHeader" style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </p><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">When the child was a child,</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">she was so very little</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">she came down from where she had been</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">and landed ever so lightly </div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">on top of a tree.</div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </p><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">At five she struggled to come down</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">to the lower branches and join her tribe</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">in playful existence.</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">Her own life was so far away</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">that she forgot.</div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </p><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">At ten she was happy to be </div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">with friends mindlessly swinging </div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">from branch to branch,</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">just like monkeys,</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">following the trail of popularity.</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">.</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">At twenty she desired the world below</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">all of it, fame, fortune, freedom,</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">but never condescended to descend.</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">She wanted to remain high up,</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">and have all eyes on her.</div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </p><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">At thirty she heard the ground calling her,</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">but was determined to learn from above</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">all there was to know,</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">come down only as a prophet, </div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">an example to all.</div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </p><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">At forty </div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">she believe she knew so much better.</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">She came down to earth</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">to be useful, change what wasn't right, </div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">redress the wrong, repair the faulty.</div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </p><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">She helped people through their crises,</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">assisted them in being born, in dying,</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">she supported, succored and aided the world </div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">to get to the next stage of advancement,</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">It nearly killed her.</div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </p><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">At fifty she was happy </div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">just to be and to have found out what that was.</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">She touched the ground for the first time,</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">felt the network of ancestral roots </div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">growing deep and traveling wide under the earth.</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">She was related to everyone and everything.</div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </p><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">At sixty she took a dive inward </div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">to an infinite vastness,</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">catching the tiny movement of dreams</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">at the very heart of matter,</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">and she traveled </div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">within the Now of her seventies and eighties,</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">towards the immeasurable pleasure</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">of egoless existence.</div></div></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></body></html>