River Sunday

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

This morning, in the grace of the world, we sat near our little creek, which only has a trickle left in it and reflected on water, rivers, thirst, desire, flow, vitality and living waters. We, who are water creatures, carry rivers within us - our circulatory system, our brain ever making new tributaries, yet without other rivers to sustain us we can not survive, physically, emotionally or spiritually. To be alive the river must flow and so must we - giving and receiving, navigating obstacles to make our own path and attending to the life within as well as with out.

“Let anyone who wishes, take the water of life as a gift.” — Revelation 22:17