home sweet Michigan

It was so, so good to be home for the first part of August. Gracie and Matt's wedding was beautiful and a blast (I can't wait for the pictures!), and Dad's election stressful and thrilling :). In short, after a crazy week we were all ready for some rest and relaxation. Our aunt and uncle generously offered their cabin in northern Michigan, so we packed up the babies and dog and twelve adults and headed to the woods. A couple of days of no cell service or internet, and lots of time in, on, and around the lake was so rejuvenating. (I've decided it's good for my soul to be barefoot for days on end.)

I think this picture/poem combination sums it up best:

The Peace of Wild Things

By Wendell Berry

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.