The Peace of Wild Things
Wendell Berry
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.
Pray: For the Beauty of The Earth
Folliott Sanford Pierpoint 1864
For the beauty
of Your earth
for the beauty
of Your skies
for the beauty
of Your love
which from my birth
over and around me lies…
Lord of all to You I raise
this my prayer of grateful praise.
For the beauty
of each hour
of the day
and of the night
hill and vale
tree and flower
sun and moon
stars of light…
Lord of all to You I raise
this my prayer of grateful praise.