“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.

What I love about this poem is that it invites us not to escape — but to return. To return to a kind of attention that isn’t frantic, distracted or controlling.

As leaders, and as humans, we spend so much time managing urgency. But sometimes the real wisdom comes not from planning or solving — but from stepping outside the rush and allowing ourselves to be grounded again.

The Thinking Environment works in a similar way. It creates the space for people to come back to themselves — and to think freshly, from a place of ease and depth.

I hope this poem gives you a small moment of that kind of peace today.