Art and Reciprocity

I recently finished reading another Robin Wall Kimmerer book: The Serviceberry, in which she speaks of the natural world’s order of reciprocity. The Serviceberry, also known as Saskatoon and a myriad of other names, provides us food, which in turn continues to give back to the community for the gifts it receives as well. That is how the natural world operates.

Given our current very dangerous climate situation, living a life of reciprocity is an answer to mitigating some of the effects of climate change. No species can out ‘own’ the other without eventually destroying oneself. Isn’t that evident now?

I’m currently in California to visit with my daughter and her soon to be husband, as well as to help my son and his wife move to Oregon. There’s just a lot going on here. I’ve been reflecting upon Kimmerer’s work and there was one statement that really resonated with me when I think of my current journey. There are many ways to enter a life of reciprocity, but one thing that stood out to me was this suggestion: “making art that invites others into the web of reciprocity.” Lightbulb moment, that is what we’re attempting to do here, Sofia and I, through our artwork, we’d like to make the gesture of inviting others into our natural world to love it enough to take good care of it.

As I was walking with Lady through the streets of Santa Monica, the smoke and haze from the fires still hung in the air. But the flowers, the beautiful flowers, I could not stop taking photos of them. To me, coming from the cold north, the flowers appear to be so exotic. But to them, they are just living their best lives and blooming where they’ve been planted. Birds of Paradise, Calla Lilies, Camelia, and a host of other succulents and flowers that I do not know their names. Despite all of the unsettledness in our lives right now, they are there. They make no sound, but beckon us to slow down, look at them, appreciate them, then go about your day and be a little bit kinder to those around you.

Lady and I made our way to the beach. She gets very excited on the sand, so hanging on to her leash was a bit of a challenge. Sitting on the beach the sound of the waves was healing and mesmerizing. Slowing my breath so that it corresponded with the lapping of the waves, I saw something moving in the water. Thinking it was an early surfer, I settled in to watch only to be astonished to realize that it was not a surfer, but a dolphin. Then not just one dolphin, but up to a dozen of them. Up and down, around and about, sometimes big splashes and loud chuffs as what appeared to me were joyfully making their way north up the coast.

Stunned, and Lady now resigned to lying in the sand next to me, I took in the sight, the incredible wonder of watching such wild and free animals travel, unbothered, untethered by the dense human urban setting on the land that rises next to them. They could care less about our politics or our divisions, our concerns were not theirs. Oh the freedom in that sight.