The Peace of Wild Things: October 15 - 21

The Peace of Wild Thing

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

berrycenter.org

Practice

Read the poem three times, pausing a few minutes after each reading for reflection:

1. Let it speak to your mind.

2. Let it speak to your heart.

3. Let it speak to your soul.

4. Rest in the grace of the world.