A couple of times over the last weeks I have driven by a large sign that simply reads: ‘Temporary Space Available’. Looking past the sign all that can be seen is a field of pasture grass and wild flowers. Further in the distance is a large office building. But you have to look very hard to see the building which, I suspect, is the temporary space that is available.

For some reason this sign has captured my imagination. On the one hand, who wants to rent space on a temporary basis? On the other hand, who is looking for a temporary space and what are their reasons? On the other hand, what if I am wrong and the temporary space that is available really is the open, grassy, wildflower strewn field and not the office building in the distance? On the other hand…..oh, so many things to consider!

While looking at this field, I can imagine many times during any given day when walking into this field, even temporarily, would help clear my head and put whatever seemingly urgent matter into perspective. I can imagine the grasses waving in the wind around me as I sit on the ground hidden from the sight of other humans. I can imagine staring for a couple of hours into the face of a black-eyed Susan or purple headed prairie grass, noticing the intricate shape of bloom and blossom. I can imagine this contemplative staring filling me first with awe at their very existence and then with calm at my relationship to them. I can imagine the sturdy strength of the ground beneath me and the comfort of that. I can imagine the other creatures….ants, worms,field mice, moles, voles…..that might crawl around me reminding me of place in family of things. I can imagine laying back and taking a nap, the sun warming my face and keeping watch over my temporary respite from the pulls of the world.

I suppose every one needs a temporary space now and then. A space where they can reconnect with their own beating heart, their own longing soul. Do you have such a space? Have you visited it recently? I know many people who have lake cabins that provide such a retreat from the stresses of work and every day living. Others I know have a coffee shop or pub where they have a familiar chair. This need for temporary space is always a pilgrimage of re-creation.

For some reason the second sighting of this sign sent me searching for this poem by Wendell Berry which seems to me an affirmation of the importance of temporary space:

“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.”

If you are out driving around the Twin Cities today and see a field with an advertisement for temporary space available and in the middle of that field you see a parting of grasses and an indentation, it could be me taking a break from the pulls of life on what promises to be, perhaps, our last sweltering day of the season. I may be found resting, temporarily, in the presence of wild things, allowing their grace to wash over me and send me on my way.