Rest in the Grace of the World

I have been sensing a tendency toward fear and depression both in my own soul and in the words of those around me. I am considering these words by Wendell Berry and what they might mean to all of us at this point in history.

“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, Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community: Eight Essays

Winter is Coming

"A Hazy Shade of Winter" (listen to it here) was written by Paul Simon in the early sixties and appears on Simon & Garfunkel's fourth studio album, Bookends (1968). The song is a metaphor for a life which draws upon the transition from fall to winter. It speaks of a person who once had great hope, but as time goes on, hope is slowly transitioning to uncertainty. There is a haze through which the writer cannot see clearly. He listens to the Salvation Army Band for inspiration but it is unclear if this gives him any peace. Ultimately, he rejects the message of salvation and turns back to his vodka and lime while reading his collection of incomplete rhymes. It is a mid-life crisis song in which the singer wonders if he has accomplished anything in his life and longs for something more; he longs to be remembered. He recognizes that it should be the springtime of his life, but the patch of snow on the ground tells him that winter is coming.

Hazy Shade of Winter 

Time, time time, see what's become of me

While I looked around for my possibilities

I was so hard to please

But look around

The leaves are brown

And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Hear the Salvation Army band

Down by the riverside, there's bound to be a better ride

Than what you've got planned

Carry your cup in your hand

And look around you

Leaves are brown, now

And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Hang on to your hopes, my friend

That's an easy thing to say

But if your hopes should pass away

Simply pretend that you can build them again

Look around

The grass is high

The fields are ripe

It's the springtime of my life

Seasons change with the scenery

Weaving time in a tapestry

Won't you stop and remember me

At any convenient time?

Funny how my memory skips while looking over manuscripts

Of unpublished rhyme

Drinking my vodka and lime 

I look around

Leaves are brown, now

And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Look around

Leaves are brown

There's a patch of snow on the ground

Look around

Leaves are brown

There's a patch of snow on the ground

Look around

Leaves are brown

There's a patch of snow on the ground

Words and music written by Paul Simon; published by Universal Music Publishing Group ©.