<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">The Peace of Wild Things</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">When despair grows in me</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">and I wake in the middle of the night at the least sound</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">I go and lie down where the wood drake</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">I come into the peace of wild things</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">who do not tax their lives with forethought</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">of grief. I come into the presence of still water.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">And I feel above me the day-blind stars</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">waiting for their light. For a time</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Wendell Berry</div><br class=""><br class=""><div class="">
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><i class=""><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><br class=""></i></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><i class=""><br class=""></i></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><i class=""><br class=""></i></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><i class="">The times are too critical to indulge in despair or cynicism or pessimism.</i> <i class="">Now, more than ever, we must muster all the creativity, compassion and courage we can.</i></div>
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