The More I Know

The more I look, more I see,
The more that life asks of me
The more it hurts, the more I feel,
The more it takes time to heal
For easy times they come and they go
They come and they go so quickly
And peace of mind is so hard to know
It's something to keep me striving
The more I learn the less I know,
So little time, so far to go
When your heart's getting burned,
As you weep, so you learn
For easy times they come and they go
They come and they go so swiftly
And peace of mind is so hard to know
It's something to keep me striving
The more it hurts, the more you feel
The more it takes the time to heal
The more you look, the more you see
The more these things were meant to be
For easy times they come and they go
Come and they go so softly
And peace of mind is so hard to know
It's something that keeps me smiling
The more I look, the more I see, the more that life gives to me.

- Music and lyrics by Roger Hodgson

"I think it pisses God off..."

"Oh, she say. God love all them feelings. That's some of the best stuff God did. And when you know God loves 'em you enjoy 'em a lot more. You can just relax, go with everything that's going, and praise God by liking what you like.

God don't think it dirty? I ast.

Nah, she say. God made it. Listen, God loves everything you love--and a mess of stuff you don't. But more than anything else, God love admiration.

You saying God vain? I ast.

Naw, she say. Not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.

What it do when it pissed off? I ast.

Oh, it make something else. People think pleasing God is all God care about. But any fool living in this world can see it always trying to please us back."

~ Alice Walker in "The Color Purple"
(p. 167; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers; 1982 Edition)

Live Frugally On Surprise

Expect nothing.
Live frugally
On surprise.

Become a stranger
To need of pity
Or, if compassion be freely
Given out
Take only enough
Stop short of urge to plead
Then purge away the need.

Wish for nothing larger
Than your own small heart
Or greater than a star;
Tame wild disappointment
With caress unmoved and cold
Make of it a parka
For your soul.

Discover the reason why
So tiny human midget
Exists at all
So scared unwise
But expect nothing.
Live frugally On surprise.
~ Alice Walker