I'm Gretchen Ruben and this is a little happier. In the happiness project, or maybe it wasn't happier at home,

I write about the idea of having an area of refuge, having a beautiful image or idea that I could turn to

when I was feeling upset or anxious that would help to boost my spirits and make me feel happier.

And recently I've been on a big Willa-Cather kick, rereading all the novels of Willa-Cather.

And when I was rereading her novel, O'Pinears, one of her masterpieces, I came across a beautiful

example of an area of refuge. And to set this scene, it's about Alexandra and Amille.

They're a brother and sister who are spending the day together on their farm in Nebraska.

There were certain days in her life outwardly uneventful, which Alexandra remembered as peculiarly

happy, days when she was close to the flat, fallow world about her and felt as it were in her own body,

the joyous germination in the soil. There were days too, which she and Amille had spent together,

upon which she loved to look back. There had been such a day when they were down on the river in the

dry year, looking over the land. They had made an early start when morning and had driven a long

way before noon. When Amille said he was hungry, they drew back from the road, gave Brigham his oats

among the bushes, and climbed up to the top of a grassy bluff to eat their lunch under the shade

of some little omen trees. The river was clear there, and shallow, since there had been no rain,

and it ran in ripples over the sparkling sand. Under the overhanging willows of the opposite bank,

there was an inlet where the water was deeper and flowed so slowly that it seemed to sleep in the

sun. In this little bay, a single wild duck was swimming and diving and preening her feathers,

disporting herself very happily in the flickering light and shade. They sat for a long time,

watching the solitary bird take its pleasure. No living thing had ever seemed to Alexandra as beautiful

as that wild duck. Amille must have felt about it as she did, for afterward, when they were at home,

he used sometimes to say, Sister, you know our duck down there? Alexandra remembered that day as one

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