The peace of wild things

Wendell Berry, poet, author, activist, humanist, environmentalist, and a lot of other things, has died at the age of 92. He lived a life of commitment to community and place. He lived a good life. When despair for the world grows in meand I wake in the night at the least soundin fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,I go and lie down where the wood drakerests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.I come into the peace of wild thingswho do not tax their lives with forethoughtof grief. I come into the presence of still water.And I feel above me the day-blind starswaiting with their light. For a timeI rest in the grace of the world, and am free. — Wendell Berry (1934-2026).