Friday, October 13, 2023

The Peace of Wild Things


A social media friend of mine, undone by the news from Israel, jumped the rails recently and landed very near left-wing anti-Semitism. Ordinarily a non-combatant --- content to speak my piece and then let it rest --- there was great temptation to school my friend. But in the interests of actually getting to sleep, I slapped hands poised at the keyboard and let it rest.

And instead retreated into this insight from Wendell Berry, which I commend to you to start a new day.

"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.”

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