The following entry was written by Karen York, Executive Vice President, Alive Hospice.
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“The sky is falling”, they say. “The
world as we know it is coming to an end.” Look at the economic bail-outs, government rescues, bi-partisan blaming and presidential
posturing. Markets roller coaster day-to-day. Most of us watch in confusion and
fear as no one provides an explanation or a remedy that we like or fully understand.
Fearful of our future, we watch the news, hug our families, go to sleep each
night and rise again tomorrow.
M
eanwhile,
people are confined to their beds in hospice care; the world’s activities a
distant worry. Right now, in this moment, they seek the immeasurable wealth of
a caregiver with warm eyes and an open heart. I have noticed that the squirrel
outside my window is still gathering food and the red oak down the way is
preparing for her tribute to fall. I share this poem from Wendell Berry as
solace for all caregivers to make space for peace in the midst of this storm.
The Peace of Wild Things
When despair grows in me
and I wake in the middle of 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.
Journal of Sacred Work 
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