The Peace of Wild Things

This is going to be another holiday season when people beg me to let them know what gifts I want and where I frustrate them by shrugging and saying that I have everything I want.

Only it's not entirely true. 

I want peace, in my head and my heart.

I want beauty all around me. 

I want things that are meaningful to me because they're created out of love and passion. 

So I'm coveting anything made by my friend Lisa Lehmann - rings, necklaces, earrings, bracelets. 

And I'm coveting this piece of art made by my friend Robin Plemmons. At first I thought I wanted to get it for my husband, but the more I look at it, the more I want it for myself. I can't remember where I first heard this poem, but it resonates within me. This need for a quiet place to just go be. That I love the art around it is just gravy.

This holiday season, in the midst of the mad pace at work, at home, and in between. I want to remember to take time to just be in the moment. That will be the best gift of all.

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