Peace

This serene plant is a Peace Lily, given to me recently by a friend.

It may well be the perfect plant, as it does not need large amounts of water or light to survive, is relatively resistant to insects and diseases, and is reputed to clean environmental contaminants from indoor air.

My new plant's name reminded me of one of my favorite Wendell Berry poems.

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair 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 for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

(From The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry, 1998)

(If you have time over this holiday season, I strongly encourage you to watch this recent Bill Moyers interview with Wendell Berry -- poet, essayist, novelist, environmentalist, visionary, farmer -- and one of my heroes. You can hear him read the poem above at about 20 minutes into the 39-minute interview. )