Earlier this month Wendell Berry, the famed poet, novelist, essayist, and social commentator, passed away. His work had a tremendous impact and will continue to do so for years and years to come.

Below is one of my favorite poems from Berry and one of my favorite quotes from him…

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.
(The Peace of Wild Things)

“I take literally the statement in the Gospel of John that God loves the world. I believe that the world was created and approved by love, that it subsists, coheres, and endures by love, and that, insofar as it is redeemable, it can be redeemed only by love. I believe that divine love, incarnate and indwelling in the world, summons the world always toward wholeness, which ultimately is reconciliation and atonement with God.”
(from The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays)

This poem reminds of the importance of spending time in God’s creation to gain perspective and clarity, and this quote calls me back to the centrality of God’s love.

And in our day and time, we desperately need both.

We need time in nature away from our devices and we need to be rooted in the love of God rather than the love of stuff or money or man.

So, take a walk and be reminded of God’s care for you, and then go and share that love with others.