I found this quote from Rumi, and it stopped me in my tracks:
Make me sweet again,
fragant and fresh and wild,
and thankful for any small event.
How I want that. It’s harder as I age. I can feel the faintest tinge of bitterness always there to shade its color in me….an is that all there is? Or…I knew you’d do that….as if too much life experience or being around people long enough has given me an inevitable edge of distrust.
I want to be the best of the girl I was: open, trusting, assuming good would happen. A wise man once asked a group of us, what is good? That which is 
nondisturbing? That which pleases you? What if that isn’t good to another? What then is good?
Ah. That brings God/higher power/universe aspects into the picture. The old Zen story of the boy who broke his leg (bad, right?) only that meant he couldn’t be dragged away from his family to be a solider when an army passed through. Or the rain that floods one place and heals another. The truth is I don’t know what good is, nor bad, at a bigger level, from a larger gaze that takes in more 
than me.
So I want to be sweet again, fragant and fresh and wild, and thankful for any small event. That, now, is good.
Karleen Koen — writing life 
“and thankful for any small event.” And, thank you for that!
Karleen,
Your ability with words is powerful!!!! I love your blog and cani’t wait to meet you at the summer workshops in Alpine.Plan to get your new book this week. I’m a “non-fiction” wantabe writer with numerous how-to’s and blogs under my belt. You are encouraging another direction. Thanks,
alice kolb
ali.kolb@yahoo.com
http://pens-or-pins.blogspot.com
that which is good harms none. is it possible? i don’t know.
but being sweet again, to me, means being blissfully ignorant. maybe a better prayer is for there to be no need to be sweet again.?
What an absolutely beautiful desire. I love that you write about this. Contemplate this…
I always want to be beyond what I know of myself, which is related to your words. The sweetness is what we are when we are young and the world is just opening. For me, I think the clarity and clean-ness that comes now through the Sufi work is better than youth because I am not naive. Instead I am released and detached. There is wonderment there, just a different flavor. The challenge is finding the door…