EArth "For A TIME, I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.": JOD, Beauty

Today is Earth day, and as John reminds us, it should be earth day every day!

"Celebrate morning
The cry of a loon on a lake in the night
The dreams that are born in the dawn's early light
Celebrate morning

Celebrate living
The laughter that sings in the heart of a child
The freedom that flies at the call of the wild
Celebrate living

Celebrate evening
The stars that appear in the loss of the sun
Whispering winds, "We are one, we are one?...

Celebrate earth Day, every day
Celebrate earth Day, every day
Celebrate land and sea
Celebrate you and me

Celebrate earth Day, every day
Celebrate land and sea
Celebrate you and me
Celebrate earth Day, every day, every day, every day, every day..." - John Denver

As various forms of human-made madness continue to swirl around us—occasionally catching us up in the swirl—it's important to be intentional about seeking sources of inner peace. Only when we're at peace inwardly can bring some measure of peace to a violent world.

That's why I'm grateful for this poem by Wendell Berry. He not only reminds us of the peace to be found in the natural world—he offers us the peace to be found in a poem.

Most of the time, I can't "lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds." But I can rest in the beauty and wisdom of this poem any time I want.

It's worth noting that Berry says, "For A TIME, I rest in the grace of the world, and am free." With that grace and freedom in hand, we can return to the madness and do what we can to help others reclaim their humanity—until it's time, once again, to reclaim our own.

In Praise of the Earth

Let us bless
The imagination of the Earth.
That knew early the patience
To harness the mind of time,
Waited for the seas to warm,
Ready to welcome the emergence
Of things dreaming of voyaging
Among the stillness of land.

And how light knew to nurse
The growth until the face of the Earth
Brightened beneath a vision of color.

When the ages of ice came
And sealed the Earth inside
An endless coma of cold,
The heart of the Earth held hope,
Storing fragments of memory,
Ready for the return of the sun.

Let us thank the Earth
That offers ground for home
And holds our feet firm
To walk in space open
To infinite galaxies.

Let us salute the silence
And certainty of mountains:
Their sublime stillness,
Their dream-filled hearts.

The wonder of a garden
Trusting the first warmth of spring
Until its black infinity of cells
Becomes charged with dream;
Then the silent, slow nurture
Of the seed's self, coaxing it
To trust the act of death.

The humility of the Earth
That transfigures all
That has fallen
Of outlived growth.

The kindness of the Earth,
Opening to receive
Our worn forms
Into the final stillness.

Let us ask forgiveness of the Earth
For all our sins against her:
For our violence and poisonings
Of her beauty.

Let us remember within us
The ancient clay,
Holding the memory of seasons,
The passion of the wind,
The fluency of water,
The warmth of fire,
The quiver-touch of the sun
And shadowed sureness of the moon.

That we may awaken,
To live to the full
The dream of the Earth
Who chose us to emerge
And incarnate its hidden night
In mind, spirit, and light.

~ John O'Donohue ~

(To Bless the Space Between Us)

Beauty does not linger, it only visits. Yet beauty's visitation affects us and invites us into its rhythm, it calls us to feel, think and act beautifully in the world: to create and live a life that awakens the Beautiful. A life without delight is only half a life. Lest this be construed as a plea for decadence or self-indulgence that is blind to the horrors of the world, we should remember that beauty does not restrict its visitations only to those whom fortune or circumstances favour. Indeed, it is often the whispers and glimpses of beauty which enable people to endure on desperate frontiers. Even, and perhaps especially, in the bleakest times, we can still discover and awaken beauty; these are precisely the times when we need it most.   JOD