Lions and Tigers and Bears

My life this week has been filled with contrasts.

On the one hand, I’ve been immersed in fun as I accompany my dog to play practice. Yes, I said my dog! Daisy is playing “Toto” in a community production of “The Wizard of Oz”.

We have delighted in her ability to bond with the cast members, young and old and to be comfortable in all the commotion. And there is certainly a lot…”lions and tigers and bears, oh no”!

I encourage everyone in Peterborough to go and enjoy the “joie de vivre” (carefree enjoyment of living) by taking in the costumes, music and dancing and of course how expertly Daisy is in playing Toto. It is guaranteed to delight!

On the other hand, I have been deeply disturbed by the divisiveness evidenced during the elections in country of my birth. I have been stunned and have looked to other’s words of wisdom to move through this time.

Thank you Erin for offering the steadying words of Francis Weller.., “The task of a mature human being is to hold grief in one hand and gratitude in the other and allow oneself to be stretched large by them.” Such richness…

And thank you Shirley for offering a healing balm in Wendell Berry’s wise words.

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

My wish for you this week is an awareness of your heart stretched wide as you experience the contrasts of life on this beautiful planet.