<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="">Thank you Lydia. Thank you anonymous, thanks to the ancestors.<div class="">I say yeh for liberation of the obligations of our own making. What freedom!</div><div class="">R<br class=""><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Apr 18, 2022, at 12:36, Lydia Ruby Shepard via Thespiritexpress <<a href="mailto:thespiritexpress@lists.mcn.org" class="">thespiritexpress@lists.mcn.org</a>> wrote:.</div><div class=""><div class="PlainText elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><div class="elementToProof" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Posted by Charlie Engel. Author is not known.<br class=""></div></div><div class="PlainText elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><br class=""></div><div class="PlainText elementToProof" style="font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">~~ WHAT THE ANCESTORS WANT YOU TO KNOW ~~<br class=""></div><div class="PlainText elementToProof" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;">The ancestors want you to know,<br class=""></div><div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><div class="PlainText elementToProof">you are not required to carry their pain.<br class="">Your mother did not spin the web that nets you,<br class="">you wove it from your own desire.<br class="">Yesterday's rain won't nourish this flower;<br class="">the new sun drank last night's tears.<br class="">Your grandmothers are singing for you<br class="">to birth your own unbearable happiness.<br class="">Your grandfathers' bones are praying for you<br class="">to hunt the sweetness in your own marrow.<br class="">You think you must stand like a warrior<br class="">in the withering crossfire of your father's blood.<br class="">But what wounds you is the wavering blade<br class="">of your mind, slashing the past and future.<br class="">If you insist on making reparations, plant<br class="">a wild pine; let it be a tree of Presence.<br class="">You cannot pay them for the privilege of breathing,<br class="">for awakening this solitude of beauty.<br class="">They need no libation, they thirst for no offering.<br class="">They are not hungry ghosts,<br class="">But earthworms who luxuriate in loam,<br class="">shards of sunlight lodged in magnolia blossoms.<br class="">Do not carry them; they do not carry you.<br class="">They bear their own grief and laughter.<br class="">The past is vanishing smoke, the flame is now.<br class="">Be christened with this breath; name yourself.<br class="">You sleep alone in the chamber of your ribs.<br class="">No one else enters and leaves your lungs.<br class="">A mother kissed you, a father held you;<br class="">you owe them nothing for this.<br class="">They did it for themselves; now let them<br class="">be about the business of their next childhood.<br class="">Father your heart, Mother your body.<br class="">Hold and kiss new sparkling babies.<br class="">Give them your grandmother's name if you must,<br class="">but not as a weight, not as a brand on the hip;<br class="">But as a prayer, a promise of astonishment<br class="">for what has not yet been conceived.<br class="">__________<br class="">Author unknown<br class=""><br class=""><br class=""></div></div><div class="BodyFragment" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><font size="2" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class=""></span></font></div><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">_______________________________________________</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">Thespiritexpress mailing list</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><a href="mailto:Thespiritexpress@lists.mcn.org" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="">Thespiritexpress@lists.mcn.org</a><br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><a href="http://lists.mcn.org/mailman/listinfo/thespiritexpress" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="">http://lists.mcn.org/mailman/listinfo/thespiritexpress</a></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div></body></html>