"where the wood drake rests in his beauty"
May a wonderful light
Always guide you on the unfolding road.
—Ben Okri
Mandragora, female, 1195, De herbis femininis, Sloane MS 1975, Fol. 49r. The British Library
The Peace of Wild Things
by Wendell Berry
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.
from Collected Poems (North Point Press), 1985
Creative Invitation
The word ‘treehugger’ began as a pejorative noun, invented by to describe Hindu villagers who did not want their forest cut down to build a royal palace. Then it became a term of contempt for environmentalists, used by capitalists. Let us reclaim the term. The act of hugging a tree is extraordinarily grounding. Why don’t we do it daily? Compassion emanates from trees, a witness to all our comings and goings, our griefs and joys, from one who is patient. Their feelings are of a time-scale altogether different, beyond our mammalian heartbeat-driven pace.
Sit at the base of a tree for five minutes. Lean against its trunk. Feel your breath and body meet the tree, be greeted by it. Once you are connected, turn and wrap your arms around the trunk. Ask the tree to take all that’s weighted in your heart and release it through leaf respiration. Rest there with your face against the trunk until your body is calm.
Write for five minutes from the perspective of the tree
or
Write about a significant tree in your life and what it has seen over time
or
Draw a tree from your childhood—such as a tree you climbed or a tree that held a swing
thanks!
thank you, frenchie!