What I Fear Most

What I fear most is despair

for the world and us: forever less

of beauty, silence, open air,

gratitude, unbidden happiness,

affection, unegotistical desire

Wendell Berry (Sabbath Poems)

This by the same poet who offers the Peace of Wild Things and “when despair for the world grows in me”, simply and beautifully conveys what is also my greatest fear as well as my greatest hope. Berry wrote upon taking sabbath walks and using the stillness, silence and sabbath qualities of nature and pause to open his heart to the opposite of despair. In developmental terms the opposite to despair is Wisdom.

Everyday we negotiate the balance or imbalance of these opposing emotions: despair and wisdom, grief and joy, inspiration and depression. 

Berry seems to suggest that naming the fear or negative side of the equation initiates a process of moving toward or opening to the antidote.

Beauty, Silence, Gratitude, Unegotistical Desire (just plucking a few) are always present in the stillness of the world, even in the wilderness or especially there. They will never be “forever less”. The balm is in the peace of wild things.

Grace is always freely given and our choice may be to “turn aside” to recognize it and receive it.