When despair for the world grows in me . . .

hot rock dress, dover, ma

The Peace of Wild Things

BY 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.

 

Wendell Berry's poem is one of my favorites ~ 

one that stays near in my memory banks, one that has inspired me.  

This past week I found myself hampered by a gray cloud. Be it from an unbearable heat wave, unfathomable craziness in the news, personal and financial stress; I don't know. 

I do know that I was feeling lost and overwhelmed.  

So one morning after dropping the car pool off at camp I stopped at a pond near the camp.  

I have driven by this pond for the past four years, always thinking that i wanted to stop there, it looked so lovely and peaceful.  

Well last week I did.  I didn't have a job to go to until later, I had some free time, 

so I turned my car into the drive.

 

When I got out of my car I saw the blue heron, so beautiful, so peaceful & quiet. It was then that Berry's words sprung into my mind,  suddenly I was living the poem.

i found a peace by the still water, even in the blazing sun. Suddenly the pressures and stresses of my life diminished a bit in my mind.  

 

As i walked the perimeters of the pond, noting the beauty of the lily pads and the flight of the dragonflies, i found this parched picnic table in a sea of hot pebbles and was inspired.  

Making an ephemeral dress is always therapeutic for me.  I get lost in the act of creating with little thought of the finished product, just finding the right material to create the dress. 

The dress that emerged i am calling, my 'hot rock' dress, 

sitting in the blazing hot sun, in the presence of still water, in the grace of world.

Here, i found a peace! and for that I am sooooo thankful!!!

peace