Hi, Folks,

I’m looking forward to this Saturday when we’ll have chance to get together for another purposeful walk to clean up the UU mile of the American River Parkway.  As usual, we’ll meet between 8:45-9:00AM in the parking lot, next to the levee, at the end of Northrop Avenue, off Howe Avenue, behind Panera. We’ll sign in; I’ll issue trash bags and orient new folks; and we’ll spend one hour removing trash from the UU Mile. Then we’ll meet back at the levee stairway at 10:00 AM for a photograph of our crew and the results of our efforts. If you wish to continue the fun, come on over to Panera for refreshments and conversation after the cleanup.

I was touched last Sunday by Lucy’s reading of Wendell Berry’s, “The Peace of the Wild Things”. The poem reminded me of the importance of what we do, in our small way, to protect a place where the peace of wild things may be found close to home.

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.

I hope you’ll consider being with us on Saturday.

Dave

Great Blue Heron, American River Parkway