Art, Grief, Protest

The first thing I ever wanted to be for Halloween was a whale. Weird, right? Then, when I was a teenager, my father brought home a deck of medicine cards, which are similar to tarot cards except with native american symbology. The first card I drew was a whale. For the next dozen times I drew a card, it was a whale more often than not. Finding this strange, I thought to recall my early childhood when I would open books with whales and try to draw and read about them to the best of my ability. This connection seemed strange, and I still don't really now what it means, but I know it's there.

When this story, of the orca mother who has carried her dead calf on her back for 9 straight days came around, nothing more than the usual sadness and dismissal rose in my heart. Another sad event, an unusual animal behavior, a demonstration of mourning, a sign of relatable intelligence, interesting but ignorable... gotta keep living, right?

Later I learned that the whole community of whales has been sharing the mother's burden, lifting the dead calf to the surface. It turns out this family hasn't had many successful births in the last ten years. Largely attributable to the overfishing and environmental damage human actions have wrought. "Sadder, but nothing new." I thought.

It still wasn't clear to me until I read the interpretation of my sister in law, "This is a protest."

"Oh yeah," then the tears came into the backs of my eyes. I thought of so much beauty and love civilization destroys through ignorance and an unwillingness to challenge our comfortable patterns. Myself included. I thought of her sense of powerlessness and her need to let her pain be known.

"Hey humans," she is saying, "see what you are doing..."

So I dedicated an afternoon to her with this collage. I send her my love and my empathy. I will take no more than I need of this earth we share. I will teach. I will learn. I will exit my comfort zone.

Art is new to me. Standing up for a more loving and harmonious world is not. I introduced the two today, and I expect more of this marriage to come. It is therapy, despite the fact that it makes me look long and hard at the things I'd rather not, or maybe because of it.

I will let go of the pain I share with the mother orca so I can move on, grow and heal. But I will not forget the message she brought to the surface. I love her for it.

#MotherOrca #LovethePlanet #ArtTherapy #SpiritAnimal #Orcathartic

Special thanks to the cast- Black Raspberry, Smoke Bush, Bee Balm, Yarrow, Queen Anne's Lace, Staghorn Sumac, Echinacea, Hydrangea Peniculata, and most of all.... Motherwort

Top Photo from The Seattle Times, Lynda Mapes, photographer Robin Baird andCascadia Research Collective