07/04/2025
The 4th of July feels a bit heavy, even a bit strange this year in all the chaos of this country, as we experience many of our most basic freedoms and democracy being undermined, questioned, and undone. Being here today almost feels like mockery. I am grieved by the lack of compassion, by the cruelty being exhibited, and the systemic greed of those with power.
And so in the midst of all of this collective overwhelm, I want to remind us all that we must ground ourselves in the simple yet profound peace of wild things. Now, more than ever, put your feet in the dirt. Now more than ever, walk the path in the woods. Now more than ever, sit with the trees. Pause. Listen to the sounds of the forest, or the sea, or the desert. Gaze at the mountains as the sun offers its last goodbye to the day. Stare at the moon. Put your bare feet in the stream. Set your derriere on that stone and remember once again the words of our nature poets. I will be posting more of their words in the coming days as some small respite from the storm. For today, 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.
- Wendell Berry
