Annie Dillard, a must for every Nature Lover

I found this wonderful quote on another blog called A Painting a Day. There was a link there that said "Read Annie Dillard." Well, I'm a huge Annie Dillard fan, so I couldn't resist the call to read. I clicked on the link and there was this quote. I was so excited. I love Annie Dillard! If you are into nature and have never read her work, you must. I especially love her book "Teaching a Stone to Talk." It's a collection of essays that are just amazing. My favorite is "Living Like Weasels." If you were here, I would sit you down and read it to you. Right now. I read it to all my classes, I've read it to my Bible Study class at church, I think everyone should read it and do my best to make sure that happens =) This quote comes from her Pulitzer Prize-winning book of 1974 (I think).

"There are many things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises. The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside by a generous hand. But- and this is the point- who gets excited by a mere penny? If you follow one arrow, if you crouch motionless on a bank to watch a tremulous ripple thrill on the water and are rewarded by the sight of a muskrat paddling from its den, will you count that sight a chip of copper only, and go on your rueful way? It is dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won't stoop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It is that simple. What you see is what you get."

Annie Dillard
from "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek."