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| hot rock dress, dover, ma |
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'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
