How much money do you need to be rich? One million dollars?  Three million dollars?  We tend to think about being rich as having a large amount of money.  This quote reminds me that I am rich if I have much more than I need.  So, the fewer things that I think of as necessities, the richer I become.

A necessity is something I think I can’t live without.  When I think something is a necessity, I don’t feel particularly happy about having it, but worry about losing it.  If I think of the ...

There have been times when someone confided in me, expressing grief over a loss or describing an incident that had hurt some much that talking about it brought tears to both of our eyes.  As painful as these experiences were, I always felt good about them afterward.  There have been other times that I have embarrassed someone by laughing at them.  I don’t feel good about those times.

The key isn’t the laughing or crying, it is the...

I like to keep busy at school.  When there is nothing for me to do in one class, I often slip into another.  On entering an English class one day, the teacher told me, "We are writing 'Have You Ever' poems.  You should write one too."  Less than fifteen minutes to write a poem was a challenge.  The result was pedestrian, not bad, but no real focus and not worth saving.  However, a seed was planted.  When the next school year started, the experience popped back into my mind.  Could such a poem...