Wendell Berry - Found on My Own

S'true! I haven't seen what the fuss was about Mr. Berry (though I'm rather a fan of DAVE Barry!), but reading a very nice article in the Reader's Digest about a Viet Nam adoption, I followed down to the poem underneath and liked it. Then I read the author's name and chuckled. Okay. I officially get it. Here is the poem - see what you think!

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 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.

I am reminded of Scriptures that might speak to Mr Berry's soul if he were of a mind to listen. There is Matthew 10:29-31 - "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows."

And there's the one Todd is fond of reminding me about when I fret, in Matthew 6:34 - "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

I won't be all proud and say I always trust God and never fret - I don't, and I do! There are things in my life's circle and the greater world that are troubling, even distressing - sometimes very much so. If I can affect them I try to. But sometimes all I can do is pray and trust them to God, who truly can do that which should be done. The praying is the good stuff. The praying makes a difference.

It's been a while since I felt the despair described elequently above. It's better not to get to that point. But I still find peace where the wild things are.