Being Mindful on Monday: The Peace of Wild Things

The Peace of Wild Things

by Wendall Berry

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 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 I am free.