The beauty of nature surrounding us these days has reminded me that peace is much closer than we think. Walking away from dinner last night, our friend told us Italians work to live and it seemed so natural, so the way it was meant to be. So the way I want to live the rest of my life.

I woke up far too early this morning, tormented again by dreams I can’t wait to forget. Sitting awake, at the brink of night turning into day, looking out on a mesmerizing view and smelling the lavender, I am reminded of verses inspired by the beautiful nature, verses I learned as a teen:

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.