The Gift - William Stafford

Time wants to show you a different country. It's the one

that your life conceals, the one waiting outside

when curtains are drawn, the one Grandmother hinted at

in her crochet design, the one almost found

over at the edge of the music, after the sermon.

It's the way life is, and you have it, a few years given.

You get killed now and then, violated

in various ways. (And sometimes it's turn about.)

You get tired of that. Long-suffering, you wait

and pray, and maybe good things come - maybe

the hurt slackens and you hardly feel it any more.

You have a breath without pain. It is called happiness.

It's a balance, the taking and passing along,

the composting of where you've been and how people

and weather treated you. It's a country where

you already are, bringing where you have been.

Time offers this gift in its millions of ways,

turning the world, moving the air, calling,

every morning, "Here, take it, it's yours."

Money - Thornton Wilder

“Money is like manure; it’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around encouraging young things to grow.”

— Thornton Wilder (The Matchmaker A Farce in Four Acts)

Dandelion Seed Head

‎"Learn to wish that everything should come to pass exactly as it does." 

Epictetus, Greek philosopher (c.55 - c.135 C.E.)

Where You Are - Hafiz

This place where you are right now,

God circled on a map for you.

~ Hafiz

Joy - Cheri Huber

"Joy is compassion turned inward..."

Grace emerges... - by Rob Brezsny

Pronoia doesn't promise uninterrupted progress forever. It's not a slick commercial for a perfect summer day that never ends.

Grace emerges in the ebb and flow, not just the flow.

The waning reveals a different kind of blessing than the waxing.

But whether it's our time to ferment in the valley of shadows or rise up singing in the sun-splashed meadow, fresh power to transform ourselves is always on the way.

Our suffering won't last, nor will our triumph.

Without fail, life will deliver the creative energy we need to change into the new thing we must become.

(excerpted from the revised and expanded edition of

Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia)