Peace of Wild Things

I was feeling a little restless the past couple of days and stumbled upon this poem in a book I should turn to more often, Good Poems, compiled by Garrison Keillor. It's at times like tonight where I remember the word of  the Lord can speak in many different fashions - song, art, poetry, dance and more.  Isn't that a wonderful gift that God can't be contained? 

I think so.

The Peace of Wild Things

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.

    - Wendell Berry 

Words with Friends

If you know me at all, you can agree that I am a "lover of words".  Maybe this is one way to indeed admit that I love to talk, but also I appreciate the use of words.  I love thinking about why we use the words we do and how we use the words we do.  I like hearing how people say words and the personalities and stories that come with their accents.

While it is not an obsession, I do have an affinity for a came called...Words with Friends.  Some people play solitaire, others knit, some draw - my relaxation comes in the form of this game.

For those of you who have not played it, it is basically an on-going game of Scrabble.  Some might stress over the actual "winning" of the game, but my favorite part is out doing myself.  I love it when I learn a new word (because I didn't believe the person who played said word and then looked it up, root and all...)or when I use a word that isn't commonly used.

The words I play and my competitor play in this somewhat silly game lead me somewhere...a memory is invoked or curiosity sparked.  These words guide me, whether I intend them to or not.

Y'all might know of this book called the Bible.  (Kind of a big deal where I'm at...)  It is full of words that guide, whether we intend them too or not. I'm thinking of this one verse in particular from Psalm 119, vs 105:

Your word is a lamp 

before my feet 

   and a light for my journey.

Yes, I imagine the word of the Lord to be this gorgeous lamp illuminating my well pedicured feet, and yes, this is an illusion.  Often times in reality it feels like the word of the Lord is the flashlight you put on the shelf in case of emergencies, and you never can find it when you need it because you never use it. 

Hmm...you never use it.  

My prayer today is that I start these words I read, these ancient texts that ARE INDEED relevant to today's world wisely.  And don't put them on the shelf in case of emergencies. 

Prayer:

O God of Light, Father of Life, Giver of Wisdom, Benefactor of our souls, who givest to the faint-hearted who put their trust in Thee those things into which the angels desire to look; O Sovereign Lord, who hast brought us up from the depths of darkness to light, who hast given us life from death, who hast graciously bestowed upon us freedom from slavery, and who has scattered the darkness of sin within us; do Thou now also enlighten our eyes of our understanding, and sanctify us wholly in soul, body, and spirit- Amen. 

~ Liturgy of Saint Mark (175-254?)