Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.

...there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do -- determined to save the only life you could save.

Sometimes I spend all day trying to count the leaves on a single tree... Of course I have to give up, but by then I'm half crazy with the wonder of it--the abundance of the leaves, the quietness of the branches, the hopelessness of my effort. And I am in that delicious and important place, roaring with laughter, full of earth-praise.

...whoever you are, not matter how lonely the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh & exciting - over & over announcing your place in the family of things.

Things take the time they take. don't worry. How many roads did St. Augustine follow before he became St. Augustine?

Do you love this world? Do you cherish your humble and silky life? Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath?

Far off in the red mangroves an alligator has heaved himself onto a hummock of grass and lies there, studying his poems.