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 live 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
and 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 rent in the grace of the world, and am free.

- Wendell Berry

I've got no business writing a post this morning given the mood I'm in. But we're keeping it real here at 'Suds' and not sugar-coating how lovely all this little soapmaking is. I worked straight through last night until 10pm. Got up at 3:15, 4:11, 5:23 and finally just got out of bed. Haven't had a day off, a whole day off, since the 4th of July. Energy level = low. Self pity level = high.

I rooted around for a poem or little verse that would make me feel better, change my outlook before I headed off to work at the shop all day. And this one was pretty good. But the closest I'm going to get to wild things is the mosquitos in my back yard later this evening when I get home. Not so peaceful.

I've got a list of complaints as long as my leg, but I'm not going to dwell on it. It's hard to stay grumpy when the weather is so perfectly perfect here. At least 45 of the other 50 states are suffering record heat, but we are in Shangri-La. So I'll stare at the lake, the cloudless sky, the vast amounts of trees, mountains, flowers all around me and just not think at all.