The Peace of Wild Things

I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief... For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. ~ Wendell Berry

Wild animals have plenty of danger,
abundant things beyond their control
that could go wrong, and live in the extremes
of weather, of time, of predators.
Yet there is a peace of the wild things
we're likely to misunderstand,
no matter how obvious it appears
as we watch them. We cannot understand
the peace of the wild things...
until we mind it not with our minds,
not by study of their behavior, not by
becoming like them.
We find the peace of the wild things
only by surrender of all concerns
to the God of our understanding.
And when we do, we have peace
through problems, through obstacles,
through turmoil, but only because
like the wild things we sense
the supportive hand of God
and his grace, his unmerited favor,
his pure and awesome love.