The Peace of Wild Things

Sunset on Lake Heron – Outdoor Exposure by Denise

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 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 for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. 
~ Wendell Berry