Most people associate innocence with naiveté. Conventional wisdom regards it as belonging to children and fools and rookies who lack the sophistication or experience to know the tough truths about life. But the Beauty and Truth Laboratory recognizes a different kind of innocence. It's based on an understanding that the world is always changing, and therefore deserves to be seen fresh every day. This alternative brand of innocence is fueled by an aggressive determination to empty one's imagination of all preconceptions. "Ignorance is not knowing anything and being attracted to the good," wrote Clarissa Pinkola-Estes in Women Who Run With the Wolves. "Innocence is knowing everything and still being attracted to the good."
--from PRONOIA is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World is Conspiring to Shower You With Blessings, by Rob Brezsny
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Shimmer, by Shawn Mullins

Sharing with us what he knows
shining eyes are big and blue
and all around him water flows
this world to him is new
this world to him is new
to touch a face
to kiss a smile
new eyes see no race
the essence of a child
the essence
he's born to shimmer he's born to shine
he's born to radiate
he's born to live he's born to love
but we'll teach him not to hate
true love it is a rock
smoothed over by a stream
no ticking of a clock
truly measures what that means
truly measures what that means
and this thing they call our time
heard a brilliant woman say
she said you know it's crazy
how I want to try and capture mine
I think I love this woman's way
I think I love this woman's
way she shimmers, the way she shines
the way she radiates
the way she lives, the way she loves
the way she never hates
sometimes I think of all this that can surround me
I know it all as being mine
but she kisses me and she wraps herself around me
she gives me love, she gives me time
yeah.... and I feel fine
Time I cannot change
so here's to looking back
you know I drink a whole bottle
of my prideand I toast to change
to keep these demons off my back
just get these demons off my back
cause I want to shimmer, i want to shine
I want to radiate
I want to live, I want to love
I want to try to learn not to hate
try not to hate
we're born to shimmer
we're born to shine
we're born to live, we're born to love
we're born to never hate