The din of our modern world works against staying calm and centered. Some days the best thing you can do for your state of mind is turn off your smartphone. Wendell Berry’s solution in “The Peace of Wild Things” is worth heeding:
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.
Rather like the image in the 23rd Psalm, isn’t it?
When beauty casts its glow,
When children play in snow
I softly shout for joy!
Especially when I feel stressed, may stillness help me to become calm, so that I can wait for silent consolation.
read moreFor the mystery that enfolds us and blesses us,
For the beauty that surrounds us and nourishes us,
