Stage 5: O Wise One

"Game on" means we are stepping into something new—something that requires us to learn new skills, develop new qualities, reevaluate priorities, or undergo personal transformation. 

The moment we commit, we send out a signal into the world, calling forth a guide—

someone with the wisdom we need to navigate the trials ahead. Trust the process. They will appear, ready and willing to teach us what we need to know.

Once we find this person, we recognize qualities and abilities we admire. What we see in them is what is ready to take root within ourselves. Their guidance challenges our status quo thinking, offering fresh perspectives that pry us out of old ruts.

The poverty management system is one of those deep ruts—so deeply ingrained that it can feel impossible to change. But what if the only real option is to leave that road altogether? This is where the guide steps in—to reveal a new path, one designed to lift people out of poverty rather than keep them trapped within it. Unlike the circular nature of poverty management, this new road moves forward. While it may be more complex at first, over time, it becomes the preferred route.

For over a decade, I have championed the transition from poverty management to poverty alleviation—a system designed not just to sustain people in poverty, but to reduce poverty rates by 10%, triggering a tipping point that could transform everything. Because of my commitment to this vision, and my willingness to keep pushing forward, the opportunity in Tennessee emerged—a chance to build a large-scale Poverty Alleviation System.

Throughout this journey, guides have appeared at every critical moment, offering insight on how to navigate complex systems, lay a firm foundation, and construct solutions using simple building blocks. Each step of the way, the right knowledge, the right resources, and the right people have arrived. We have never lacked what we needed to create something new and transformative for families ready to break free from the grip of poverty and live a happier life.

"O Wise One"

Acrylic painting by Scott C. Miller

To purchase prints, please contact [email protected] 

 Appreciate the Rain, Wisdom Like Pain (Associated with “O Wise One”)

But how do I get from here to there?

How do I build from nothing—
A life worth living anywhere?

I was given a wizard,
to enchant me, to thrust me
into the unknown blizzards—
to flee the depths and set me free.

 

Now I seek a master,
one who shapes from ruin.
To build temples from alabaster,
to remove all my undoing.

 

Upon my chromatic map,
I found a mountain.
I climbed to its icecap
where a mile-wide chasm,
cut smooth within the glacier,
held a fountain at its heart.

 

Behind it, on a throne of stone,
a figure sat in frozen repose—
eyes closed, hands in her lap—
a woman I instantly knew,
to whom my soul already bowed.

 

She spread her arms wide.
To her, I instantly flew.
"Nothing of yours can hide,"
she said, her glowing eyes so blue.

 

I fell to my knees.
A single tear traced my cheek.
In that moment, I was hers—
a devotee, a pilgrim,
shouting my vow into the thunder.

 

"Are you here for instruction,
or to challenge the divine?
Know this—I am destruction,
and your ego is the shrine."

I gave no answer but bowed,
accepting the weight of her lesson.
I stood, wrapped in silence.
She smiled—a gleam of pure reflection.

"For your first lesson," she said—
and from the heavens, the storm fell.
Within the downpour, the test began,
but I turned and sought shelter.

"Failure!" she thundered.
"One must learn to embrace the rain!"
From a burlap pouch, she pulled a seed.
"Wisdom is earned—despite the pain."

She cast it into the earth,
and as she spoke of ancient craft,
a fragile vine wove itself upward,
a yurt of living branches and twigs.

"You have learned much, disciple.
Now, I give you my final gift.
It is all so archetypal—
Look inside and see my love."

I stepped into the temple of trees.
At its center, resting on a white lotus,
lay the glass I once found by the sea—
changed, though I had not noticed.

Lifting it to the light,
it bent the world in new lines.
A path revealed, luminous, strange,
guiding me through the night.

My master spoke:
"This is my final gift.
Now, you will always have the monomyth."

As I descended through the snowdrift,
I knew—before every closed door,
I now stand as a locksmith.