Election Day 2016 and Fall

 On this historic election day and after voting this morning, I found my way to the Prospect Gardens.  My visit prompts thoughts of this Wendell Barry poem.

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 forethoughts

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.

The Gardens are cultivated by humans and a place where one would not find a wood drake, yet visiting them on this beautiful, sunny fall day gave me peace as I wait for election returns.  In the meantime, I share these seven Garden scenes with the aspiration that we experience moments of peace as we move further into what is now unfolding.

Black Eye Susan still in bloom; a testimony to this warm fall.  Below is another hearty clump in a different section of the Prospect Garden. Surely in the next few weeks both will feel the effects of the inevitable frost and cold winds of approaching winter.                                          

No, this is not a replica of Mother Earth. It sure looks like our blue boat home.  It's a bowling ball given to Ann and I by Steve, our former next door neighbor. Ann and I returned from an out-of-town trip and found the blue orb in one of our front yard flower beds of our Keyes Avenue home.  After we moved, Earth was moved to the Gardens.

 Brilliant yellow trees that provide shade for the Hosta garden.  The Hosta plants have also turned a golden yellow, as the leaves from the trees drop to the floor of the garden. Yesterday, on my walk through the UW Arboretum, I felt the leaves from the oak trees, lazily falling around me as I strolled underneath the trees. Watching the leaves drop to the Garden made me think of the impermanence of all things while feeling a soothing calm. 

The grasses have turned a delightful brown.  These were gently swaying in the wind as I snapped the picture.

A view towards the East and the Capitol and Camp Randall. The dome of the Capitol can be seen from here.  The sculpture-like object in the foreground is seed pods from a shrub. 

 I end with Hydrangea blooms. April, an incredible gardener, from about a half block east of the Gardens,  gave me the plant from her spectacular garden. When I planted the Hydrangea about a month ago, I never expected to enjoy its blooms on election day.

Darkness now lies outside of my windows. In a few hours, I will tune in to the election reports with the intent of maintaining peace experienced this morning while visiting the Gardens.  May you also experience moments of peace during the aftermath of this chaotic election season.