Sunday, April 22nd, 2012

Geese appear high over us,

pass, and the sky closes.  Abandon,

as in love or sleep, holds

them to their way, clear

in the ancient faith:  what we need

is here.  And we pray not

for new heaven and earth, but take

quiet in heart, and in eye,

clear.  What we need is here.

Wendell Berry

This morning I was able to catch part of Wendell Berry's conversation at the
National Episcopalian Cathedral in Washington.

A humble farmer as well as a great conservationist
he spoke about being part of the 'low life'
the closer to the earth the better!

He spoke also of the importance of broadening conversation
to make the peoples of the world more aware of stewardship.

And wasn't it the gardener and the farmer who first held
the earth precious, and planted trees they may never sit beneath
but which will provide shade and life when they are gone, and make
the world breath easier.

Here is another of Wendell Berry's poems......

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.