Winter Solstice Gift

When I heard the forecast for today,

(52 degrees and sunny!)

 I decided to celebrate the Winter Solstice 

by painting outside! 

Winter Solstice 

10 x 10 

(study) 

A friend of mine has a dock on the magnificent 

North River.
The walk to the end was breathtaking!

It was 3:00 and the sun was really low 

making the light very purply and soft.   

I had to work fast so I chose this simple view.  

I was drawn to that  dramatic light coming off

the wet mud at low tide. 

Being out there today was such an incredible gift 

and I was overwhelmed with gratitude.  

Ironically, when I got home, a friend of mine 

 sent me this poem.

Serendipitous!?  

The Peace of Wild Things

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.

- Wendell Berry