a bright penny, from annie dillard

(a very bright penny from annie dillard: pilgrim at tinker creek) 

"who gets excited by a mere penny? 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 kit 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, in fact, is planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. it is that simple. what you see is what you get."