The Peace of Wild Things

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 timeI rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— Wendell Berry

Be Drawn

Let yourself be silently drawn
by the strange pull of what you really love.
It will not lead you astray.

~ Rumi ~

getting needs met

picture yourself walking through a meadow.   there is a path opening before you.  as you walk you feel hungry.  look to your left.  there's a fruit tree in bloom.  pick what you need.  steps later you notice you are thirsty.  on your right there's a fresh water spring.  when you are tired a resting place emerges.  when you are lonely a friend appears to walk with you.  when you get lost a teacher with a map appears.  before long you notice the flow:  need and supply; desire and fulfillment.  demand and supply, desire and fulfillment-a continuous cycle unless we break it.  all the necessary supplies have been planned for this journey.

All the Hemispheres

Leave the familiar for a while.

Let your senses and bodies stretch out

Like a welcomed season

Onto the meadows and shores and hills.

Open up to the Roof.

Make a new water-mark on your excitement

And love.

Like a blooming night flower,

Bestow your vital fragrance of happiness

And giving

Upon our intimate assembly.

Change rooms in your mind for a day.

All the hemispheres in existence

Lie beside an equator

In your heart.

Greet Yourself

In your thousand other forms

As you mount the hidden tide and travel

Back home.

All the hemispheres in heaven

Are sitting around a fire

Chatting

While stitching themselves together

Into the Great Circle inside of

You.

~ Hafiz ~

Trusting

Birds learn how to fly, never knowing where flight will take them.

Flow

How can you follow the course of your life if you do not let it flow?
~Lao-Tzu

Responsibility

I felt angry toward my friend. I told my wrath. My wrath did end.
I felt angry toward my foe. I told him not. My wrath did grow.
~William Blake