A Psalm for the Wild-Built

Chambers explores finding purpose through Dex’s struggles with their identity and profession. An indefinable restlessness pushes Dex to leave their life of comfort and safety as a garden monk of Allalae in the monastery in Panga’s city, and to pursue a vocational change. Dex determinedly tells Sister Mara, the monastery’s keeper, that becoming a self-trained tea monk “is just something I need to do” (8). They are following an instinctual pull toward change. Dex believes that by pursuing their new calling, and by deriving purpose and focus from it, that they will find the peace and satisfaction which is alluding them.

Chambers shows the difference between learning something in theory versus doing it in practice. A period of struggle ensues where Dex learns on the job and feels like they are “drowning.” Dex has studied extensively, but finds themself “on the wrong side of the vast gulf between having read about doing a thing and doing the thing” (14). Dex’s purpose becomes devoted to mastering their new vocation, trying different combinations of herbs, flowers, and spices to create custom-made teas, and honing the art of comforting, listening, and offering advice. For a time, this provides a clear purpose. However, Dex is dismayed to discover, after they become “the best tea monk in Panga,” that their feeling of restlessness is still present (36).