When you don’t feel at home in the world anymore, 
       sit down by a flowing brook.
Open your palm to the wet, smooth stones.
Listen to the gurgle of water against rock --
        the music of quiet resistance. 

When you don’t feel at home in the world anymore,
        revisit old friends in books you treasure,
        or familiar melodies that break your heart.
Most of all, remember the wise ones now gone:  
       those who dared to swim upstream
       and imagined a better world.

When you don’t feel at home in the world anymore, 
       find friends who laugh, 
       write a song,
       bake bread,
       love your neighbor. 
Create a footprint of defiant joy -- 
       and walk that path. 

When you don’t feel at home in the world anymore,
        do not close the door, as tempting as it may be. 
Take the gifts of your history,
        what you love,
        and move forward into the unknown -
         the uncertain, 
         the undiscovered. 
Be a pioneer if you have to.

When you don’t feel at home in the world anymore, 
       at least feel at home in yourself.
Ground yourself in the flow of 
       the good, 
       the true, 
       the beautiful: 
       the poetry of God.

You see, the world has not ended.
Nothing is finished.
The universe flows on —
       and so do you. 

Patricia Adams Farmer, 
       In memory of two “wise ones” who dared to swim upstream:
        Dr. John B. Cobb, Jr.
       and President Jimmy Carter