get myself outside
When despair for the world grows in me, and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life or what my children’s lives might be– I go a lie down by where the wood drake rests in the beauty of the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought or 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.
- (the great) Wendell Berry
I read this poem nearly every Friday, usually after work with the lights off, alone in my classroom, panting from the end of another long week.
I crave the peace of wild things.
I’ve studied myself to know that when I am really stressed, or tired or just in need of rest, I day dream; envisioning myself on a solitary hike on a clear day.
…and that’s usually all it takes to make me new again.
that is a great, great poem.