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 might 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
The warm days of summer have faded away. Mother Earth is preparing for her long sleep. Our days draw shorter. The trees are letting go of what they no longer need and I feel the shift approaching. I am unsettled.
I have learned that when I feel the energies shifting, I may find peace and calm outdoors in the wide open, away from other people and the noise of a chaotic society. Some days I am blessed to sit alone in open fields with wild horses who seek the same freedom I do.
I can touch the ground and feel its energy. I can touch these horses and feel their wildness. It is in these quiet moments that I feel most alive.
