Strange Times
These are strange times. And that is putting it kindly. There is a pandemic making its way around the world, an election, a standoff between nations over oil, ongoing military issues overseas, and more. It is hard to focus, worrisome and nearly impossible to go about life as normal. It seems the thing to do is stay calm, stay put whenever possible and do our own part to flatten the curve. This is hard.
Searching for an upside, it didn't take long to find something that made me feel a little more hopeful. It is almost Spring. Temperatures will warm, the sun will shine more, flowers will appear as they always do, impervious to the crises of people. Maybe this is the time to clean your closets, spark up conversations with those closest to you, start raking and touching up paint. Spring things.
Things that will make your immediate surroundings better, more liveable, more beautiful. The things we say we wish we had time for. Looks like most of us will be getting more of that time. I will be heading outside with my son, who will likely be out of school for a while. We will step out into the lovely, confident rhythms of nature. And enjoy a Spring refresh of the most basic kind.
I happened upon this poem by Wendell Berry years ago ....
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.
