Tuesday, November 10, 2020

The Rev. Anne Williamson

Peace of Wild Things

My sister and I often walk on the banks of Sagamore Creek. In the time of waiting, with all the uncertainty of this past week, the tide has been out and there are extensive mud flats. We have seen ducks and geese and a beautiful heron, feeding and in flight, and that recalled to me this poem of Wendell Berry, 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 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.

This poem is a reminder to be grateful for the natural beauty that surrounds us, the beauty which can lift us when we are in doubt or despair, or just plain tired. I walk with a friend at the Urban Forestry Center on Sunday - there is a balm in Portsmouth to ease the soul! Even if looking out the window is the only way to connect to nature's beauty for you in this moment, I encourage you to look at the clouds, the blue sky, a tree if there is one to see out your window. May this waning season be a reminder that there is a season to all things. As the Psalmist writes in Psalm 'Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.'

May you know the grace of God and the freedom of God’s peace this day.