Peace, My Heart, Peace

Because I am immunocompromised, of course the pandemic weighs heavily on me. So too does the unwillingness of some people to love their neighbor — neighbors like me who must steer clear of COVID-19 — by refusing to wear masks. The state of race relations in America, political acrimony, the growth of conspiracy theories, and the rise of radicalized groups … all of it has left me overwhelmed and utterly deflated. How can we, as human beings, stand against such vitriol?

Wendell Berry’s poem “The Peace of Wild Things” has proven invaluable in the moments when it all seems too much. Do yourself a favor. Before you continue reading, visit the link above and read the poem a few times to yourself. Read it silently. Then read it aloud. Pause at each period and contemplate the imagery of the lines. Dwell in it. Center yourself. After that, click the play button and let Berry read the poem to you his soothing Kentucky drawl. Then, if you can manage to tear yourself away from the moment he’s created with his words, come back …

Think of all the “wild things” the Bible gives as object lessons: the birds who neither sow nor reap and the lilies in their finery (Matt. 6:25-33), the tiny sparrow (Luke 12:6-8), and the industrious ant (Prov. 6:6-8). We’re told to be wise as serpents but also innocent as doves (Matt. 10:16). This wisdom is what Berry discovers as he watches the wood drake resting “in his beauty on the water” under the “day-blind stars / waiting with their light.” By spending time among “wild things,” he escapes his “despair for the world”—if only for a time—by resting “in the grace of the world.”