The Peace of Wild Things
By Wendell Berry
“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.”
At one time or another, we’ve all asked “How do I keep going?” It’s a question that
comes up not only when life is especially challenging, but also when it is routine or
repetitive. For me, I feel renewed when I visit family , spend quality time with friends,
walk along the Hudson, or read a good book. It’s mostly about feeling reconnected
with people , with nature , with myself . During a really stressful challenging time when I was caring for my dad (who was in the throes of dementia) my constant source of renewal and strength was from attending the UUCRT, every Sunday. I was inspired to write about this by our last Soul Matters discernment group. One of the creators wrote “In some moments, we hunger for renewal and new energy. Some strategy that will center us or at least help us put one foot in front of the other.” And continued ” Wanting to remember how to find this kind of renewal led the writer, Lisa Olivera, to create a personal How To Keep Going Manifesto. Basically, she wrote out a list of the ways that have enabled her to keep going in the past so that she can more easily grab ahold of them in her present”.
Here is the article about her Keep Going Strategies :
https://lisaolivera.substack.com/p/how-doi-keep-going
May you all find peace and renewal, and as Wendell Berry so eloquently wrote, “rest in the grace of the world “. I look forward to seeing each and everyone on Sundays. I am blessed to serve this congregation . We all bring such unique gifts as we journey on
together. I am proud to be a part of it.
–Rev. Diane ( She, Her)