Some 40 years ago I went back to the land, built a homestead and grew much of my own food. It was a dream many shared back then and still do today. It is in our nature to be in nature. It was during this time that I came across the writings of Wendell Berry.
I went for a hike a couple of days ago at Myakka State Park. As I walked alone in solitude among the Oak hammocks and pine flat woods into the unknown, this quote from Wendell Berry came to mind:
“Always in the big woods when you leave familiar ground and step off alone into a new place there will be, along with the feelings of curiosity and excitement, a little nagging of dread. It is the ancient fear of the Unknown, and it is your first bond with the wilderness you are going into.”
Here are some other Wendell Berry quotes:
“When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound…
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.”
—The Peace of Wild Things
“There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places.”
― Given“Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do.”
― Endorsement statement for The Dying of the Trees