Where do you go to restore your soul?

I find that water does it for me. As the ancient poet puts it:

he makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.

I have a friend who created an indoor pond in her apartment during the pandemic. With plants and rocks and fish.

There’s something mysterious about the effect of water on our minds and hearts.

Wendell Berry memorably wrote about the calming effect of water:

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.

So I invite you to go and find some water to stand near or sit near for a time and feel its effect on your spirit.

Let it calm you and remind you of the wider world of connections that we are a part of and that sustain us.

Friends, we know that life is short and we have too little time to gladden the hearts of those who travel with us. So be swift to love and make haste to be kind and may the blessing of God or all that sustains you, keep you safe, grant you peace and fill you with all that you need, just for today. Amen