For a time....(I) am free.

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.

Wendell Berry, "The Peace of Wild Things" from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry. Copyright © 1998. Published and reprinted by arrangement with Counterpoint Press.

Source: Collected Poems 1957-1982 (Counterpoint Press, 1985)

I was born to lose myself inside this soft world.

Mindful

by Mary Oliver

Everyday
I see or hear
something
that more or less

kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle

in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for —
to look, to listen,

to lose myself
inside this soft world —
to instruct myself
over and over

in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant —
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help

but grow wise
with such teachings
as these —
the untrimmable light

of the world,
the ocean's shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?

"Mindful" by Mary Oliver from Why I Wake Early. © Beacon Press, 2005. 

Coffee Shops

You never know how important having a coffee shop in your town is, until you don't have access to one. I'm happy to be back to civilization where I can spend an entire afternoon at the coffee shop, if I want. It's a nice convenience that I formerly took for granted.
It's bright in the Front Porch Cafe today. The cafe is a big open space with a lot of windows. I feel comfortable here. It's well-lit, accommodating, and inviting. The light coming in contributed to my day-long headache that no amount of water will heal. I probably drank too much last night, but I had a nice time with my friends from Ecuador and the Philippines.
The main barista knows me because I stop in several times a week. She, too, is originally from Michigan. She actually graduated from Michigan State University, which is where I was just accepted for a PhD program. (Small World.) 
I've starting drinking more tea. Hot tea, iced tea. I usually ask for their suggestions for flavor. But, it's pretty good and is usually enough to take care of my caffeine fix. It gives my body a break from coffee for a bit.

Moral of the story: Coffee shops are a wonderful part of my life. I never knew how much I value them until I didn't have access to them in Chauvin, LA. I'm glad to be reunited.