At the Top of the Hill

Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon
as in love or sleep, bids
them to their way, clear
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need it here.
Wendell Berry

And when we least expect, after we had begun to believe the heavy summer would linger on forever, a morning arrives in September that is cool and fresh. The burden of the heat is lifted and the season begins its turn on the great wheel of heaven, taking with it our worn out summer selves, and leaving us with lightened hearts and renewal. Now on my morning walk the journey of the big hill is easier. The cool buoys my efforts where before I felt myself only ploughing the heavy air. The leaves no longer droop but lift and flirt with the sky in anticipation of their eventual voyage to the ground. For weeks I had tackled the hill head down from the effort of climbing. Now I find myself looking up into the sky at the top, seeing with clearer eyes the woods and grasses that line the road which is how one morning, coming down on the other side, I discovered this wonderful hornet nest. It was hanging chest high, not five feet off the road and I had been passing it for months while the hornets abandoned themselves to their work papering over their nest with a marvel of gray and taupe, ochre and cream.

There is so much beauty in the world and it is never more apparent than in the magical days when the seasons rise up in front of us, the old one fading away in the embrace of the new. Something deep down in our natural selves, hasn't forgotten we are kindred to this ritual opening before us. Something in us still hungers to abandon our lopsided focus on the man made world and seek out our home in the real one.

I am thinking this beautiful morning, of the longing in these lines by Wendell Berry. He yearns not for some miraculous cure to the tumult of the world by extraordinary means. Instead he believes our deliverance is contained in the simple prayer we be able to quiet our fear driven hearts, lift up our heads and see all that we long for, we can create. All that is required to manifest it, is for us to abandon ourselves to the ancient faith that knows our rightful place is among the wonders of that world and not above them.