A constant prayer

Friday

“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

I have posted a similar shot before on Blip, but this Christmas candle holder is one of my favourite Christmas decorations. It sits on the window ledge of our dining room and every night at dinner, I see it, and it reminds me of all those around the world who do not live in peace, and thinking especially at this present time of the horrors those in Ukraine are currently suffering, not just with all the bombing and shelling and other atrocities, but also the lack of power through a cold winter. It makes me grateful and thankful for what we have as we sit down to a hot meal in a warm home.
I came across this poem this evening by Wendell Berry, an American novelist, poet, essayist, activist and farmer, from Kentucky. His words speak to me, since I also find that getting out into nature helps soothe me when my mind is troubled by the state of this world. Wendell was the first of four children to be born to John Marshall Berry, a lawyer and tobacco farmer, and Virginia Erdman Berry. The families of both parents had farmed in Henry County for at least five generations. Having lived and worked elsewhere during his life, he returned to Kentucky, where he still lives, near Port Royal, in the area in which he was raised.
Step count: 3,738