May I Be the Duck

There is a lovely little documentary called, “How To Cook Your Life.” In it a monk, Edward Espe Brown, imparts zen philosophies for life in the context of cooking. I’ve watched it many times…especially in the kitchen! There is one point in the film when Espe Brown recites a poem written by his mother before her death. I have this poem posted in my home. It reminds me of my position in life. It reminds me of the great ocean of mystery and potential that always surrounds me. It reminds me to rest in the moment.

Here it is for you.

Ocean of the Long Tailed Duck by Doug Hiser

Now we are ready to look at something pretty special.

It’s a duck

Riding on the waves a hundred feet beyond the surf.

It can rest while the Atlantic heaves

Because it rests in the Atlantic.

Probably it doesn’t know how large the ocean is

And neither do you.

But what does it do, I ask you?

It sits down in it.

It rests in the immediate as though it were infinity.

A Poem For the Dove

The Dove

She is my voice.

When I discover her, at times, crazed in a cage

Plucking her feathers for lack of freedom

I open the door and she rests on my shoulder in contented confidence

In me.

~~~S Wave~~~

A sketch of the dove, after I met her.

Finding Grace of the World

My family recently held a service to remember and celebrate a loved on who had passed. Although I couldn’t attend, I found out that this poem was read that day. I wanted to share it with our wordpress community as a reminder to stop, to breathe, to give thanks, and to find grace and peace in the world around you.

~~~S Wave~~~

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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.