Kelley Brown-The Unsettling of America #1

"The farm must yield a place to the forest, not as a wood lot, or even as a necessary agricultural principle, but as a sacred grove--a place where the Creation is let alone, to serve as instruction, example, refuge; a place for people to go free of work and presumption, to let themselves alone" (p. 131). This quote by Wendell Berry talks about how the relationship should be between farmland and forests. Farms are constantly being worked and changing while forests only change slowly and naturally without the help or push of human hands. It is important for us to have these places of refuge to escape from the work and stress of life. In the forest you are able to see nature for what it really is, not what we, as humans, have cultured it to be. Within the forest you can find peace and tranquility because it is, by many, seen as sacred and a place of isolation from the outside world. The forest is a slow, calm place that frees the mind to wander while the speed of the farm forces thought to be restricted to only the work at hand. It is important to have both aspects and places because they balance each other out.