Out in the Fields with God

 My favorite room in my house is not really a room–it’s my front porch.There’s a table and chairs, a papasan chair, a loveseat, two rockers, other chairs.  There are wind chimes and bird houses and bird feeders.  But there is mostly quiet, silence.  I spend hours out there, reading, napping, entertaining, but mostly sitting, praying, thinking, being.  I think being is perhaps the most important.  I am a doer.  I think I have to be productive.  But sometimes I need to just be.  I need somehow to let go of the things that burden me.

In the last few days I have remembered a short poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. I have needed the reminder.

The little cares that fretted me,

I lost them yesterday

Among the fields above the sea,

Among the winds at play;

Among the lowing of the herds,

The rustling of the trees,

Among the singing off the birds,

The humming of the bees.

The foolish fears of what may happen,

I cast them all away

Among the clover-scented grass,

Among the new-mown hay;

Among the husking of the corn

Where drowsy poppies nod,

Where ill thoughts die and good are born

Out in the fields with God.

Are you fretting over little things?  Perhaps even big things are bedeviling you.  Cast those away. Lose them. Let God bring the peace you need.

                                                                ~~Faith Himes Lamb