Sabbath Poem IX (2007)

I go by a field where once I cultivated a few poor crops. It is now covered with young trees, for the forest that belongs here has come back and reclaimed its own. And I think of all the effort I have wasted and all the time, and of how much joy I took in that failed work and how much it taught me. For in so failing I learned something of my place, something of myself, and now I welcome back the trees.

-- Wendell Berry (1934- ), American farmer, poet, writer, philosopher, and agrarian