Lenten Post

When despair grows in me
And I wake in the middle of 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 for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry

I understand what Wendell Berry is pointing to, and inviting us to do. On three different pastoral visits this week I heard some people, older mostly, who spoke with such pessimism, fears, about the future of the world and the state of current affairs, economy, and politics and violence in the world.
But as I read Berry, in the winter days of Minnesota, the setting and the image has to be adapted, not to wood drakes, herons, and waters, but to perhaps, in this season,
the frost on the tamaracks, oak branches, pine boughs, and the cat tail rushes, and the reflection of the sun on those icy snow crystals.
Faith and spiritual work, can be a mind-full, (or mind less?) walk on a bright winter day. ..or just choosing to see what is here, uniquely, now. Gift. It too is a way to rest in the grace of the world. And I am free. A Stillness and a Peace
Go see it before it passes! But walk slowly!