Balms for Our Times

A few small offerings

The balm of art and nature all in one! Detail of Monet’s Water Lilies from my recent trip to Paris.

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

Like most people I know, I was nervous about this year’s election. But my brain absolutely wouldn’t let me go to the outcome we got. It was just too painful.

I’m grateful to my brain for protecting me this way. A few more months of preparatory grief would only have extended the grieving time; it wouldn’t have changed the outcome or helped in any way.

Of course, that’s easy to say, but this kind of logic doesn’t normally keep me from worrying about potential future woes; worrying is one of my superpowers. I owe it all to my very cooperative brain, not to any willpower or fortitude. Thanks, brain! I didn’t exactly achieve the peace of wild things, but at least I didn’t make myself miserable in advance. There’s plenty of time to be miserable now!

As we continue facing the unthinkable, as we figure out what the heck we can do to resist, we also need to take what moments we can to appreciate what we still have. There’s still joy and love in the world.

One way I access that is through writing, which I often find therapeutic. I hope it can also be therapeutic for those who read this newsletter — even if only for a few of you, though I hope it’s more than a few. So today, I’m offering up some past pieces that I hope can provide some balm for our souls.

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The first one, from two years ago, feels even more needed now. It’s a reminder that we’ve been dealing with the current shit long before the recent election, and that “you still gotta water the plants or you’ll have fascism AND dead plants.”

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I wasn’t really writing about Paris in the following piece; I was using that fabulous city as just one example of the amazing things we humans have created — including various zeitgeists, in the sense of both the spirit of a time and the spirit of a place. Still, Paris is awesome, and having recently visited there, I’m feeling some of that city’s magic. And we sure can use some magic right about now.

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Thanks, Leonard Cohen. Thanks, Grand Canyon. Kudos to anyone and anything that inspires awe. We need to feel awe in the most mundane of times, and we surely need it now.

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There’s a lot to fear these days, but I keep coming back to the final scene of Don’t Look Up — a reminder that we do, indeed, have everything. Right here, right now.

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And yes, I keep coming back to our crazy times — because they keep being crazy and demanding our attention. A wonderful carrot-beet-ginger salad shared with friends reminded me that even now, we can still find joy. Which I also wrote about last week. Am I repeating myself? Well, some things bear repeating. Whatever.

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What balms for the heart and soul are you finding in these troubled times? Let me know in the comments!