Tuesday, May 20, 2014

A day for peace

This poem hangs in my office. One day I will find a framed copy but, for now, it is typed and taped to my wall. I found my eyes searching for it this morning as I walked in, and now have read it several times. It resonates today.

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
  --Wendell Berry

Thank you, Mr. Berry. Your words are balm for my heart and soul today.