Perspective

The weather could not have been more beautiful this weekend. The sun was shining constantly and the temperature hovered in that perfect range of 75-80 degrees. There was no way I was going to just let it pass me by so for the past three days, I have been outside almost constantly. From a breakfast picnic with a group of neighbors in the park across the street to running, reading and knitting to spending all Monday afternoon with my friends at Minnehaha Creek, I feel both utterly exhausted and completely recharged.
It can be easy to get stuck in a certain frame of mind when a lot of challenges are handed to you all at the same time. There is part of me that would like to believe life will balance out. That for all of the stress, sadness and sometimes undefinable emotion that a series of events can cause in one's life, something good will come along. Maybe a wonderful, unexpected surprise or a newly opened door of opportunity is right around the corner and with it, a justice of sorts will be served. While I still haven't ruled this out entirely, I know its largely not going to be the case.
What I do believe now however, is that normal, average, everyday life can itself provide the balance needed to get through the tougher challenges. Eating communal meals on the ground, walking through the grass, getting dirt all over hands and toes, wading in the creek water, letting the sun provide working light and watching the new families of critters and new buds of life all around can be all that is needed to remember how great it is just to be here and be surrounded by these riches. After the past few weeks, this one has been a gift.

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