Sunday, October 30, 2011

The Peace of Wild Things

My professor read this poem to us this week and I really liked it. A friend told me recently that I worry too much and that I shouldn't pollute my life so much with worries about things that, 90% of which, aren't even going to happen. So, I'm trying to cure myself of my addiction to worry. I thought this poem related well. It's called "The Peace of Wild Things:"

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the middle of 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 for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

  -- Wendell Berry 

I believe Heavenly Father wants us to be happy. As expressed in the Book of Mormon "men are that they might have joy." Heavenly Father has given us everything and has given us this beautiful Earth, all for the intent that we might have joy. So, it's important to recognize the blessings he's given us and to look forward to the future with confidence that things will work out well in the end regardless of the unhappy things that might befall us in the mean time.