This morning to shake off the news of recent days I drove to Rodeo Beach but then didn’t feel up for ocean waves so paused at the lagoon and sat quietly hoping to see otters.  I saw a gathering of gulls splashing away, and a duck gliding by.

Children passed by guided on nature trips but mainly it was quiet as I watched the change in light and waves.

The words of this poem by Wendell Berry came to me.  

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.