Over the last few weeks we have enjoyed several posts on the story of Good Samaritan. They focused on seeing strangers as neighbours and the need to reach out to people suffering around us. Such important messages from the story. I wonder about another rarely noticed element. All of the people in this story are strangers to each other and it is a great lesson in the benefit of strangers.
In fact there are many benefits of strangers. Evidently, numerous studies show that talking with strangers can make us happier, more connected to our communities, mentally sharper, healthier, less lonely, and more trustful and optimistic. Actually for some people, including myself, one of the joys of travelling is the delight of meeting new people, having experiences not planned for and ending up with wonderful stories to tell.
“Strangers stir wonder and are waiting to be known” – Sue Duby said this in a recent newsletter and it is true. Each encounter with a stranger has so much potential hidden in it. Might this person become a friend? Will they give me a different perspective on the world? Will they help me understand a problem I am struggling with? Could they provide an opportunity to show compassion? Or will they show me compassion and generosity?
I really identify with Jane Brody’s New York Times article The Benefits Of Talking to Strangers. Like her I am an extrovert and relish talking to strangers as I walk, shop and travel. One of the delights of COVID isolation for me was walking our dog and greeting fellow walkers on the way. It strengthened my bonds to the neighbourhood in which Tom and I live making me aware every day that I am surrounded by a community and am never really alone.
Ms Brody’s article mainly focuses on the book Consequential Strangers: The Power of People Who Don’t Seem to Matter … but Really Do, by Melina Blau and Karen Fingerman. Quoting from the book she says,
consequential strangers “are as vital to our well-being, growth, and day-to-day existence as family and close friends. Consequential strangers anchor us in the world and give us a sense of being plugged into something larger. They also enhance and enrich our lives and offer us opportunities for novel experiences and information that is beyond the purview of our inner circles. They are vital social connections — people who help you get through the day and make life more interesting.”
Once upon a time I took the generosity and compassion of strangers for granted and I assumed I needed to show compassion to strangers in need. When I started wandering the world as a 25-year-old I was often invited into the houses of strangers for meals and hospitality. Yes some of them were friends of friends or were also involved in missionary work, but they were still strangers. Others I met on trains and buses and aeroplanes. Total strangers with no common connections who invited me to visit and greeted me with generous hospitality. Tom and I have extended the same kind of hospitality to strangers throughout our marriage and our lives are constantly enriched by these interactions. We gained friends and acquaintances around the world, saw our worldview stretched and reshaped, and experienced the stirring of wonder and delight at all these “consequential strangers” shared with us.
Today many of us feel threatened by strangers. COVID and the growing threat of violence in our world makes us afraid of people we do not know. Our busy schedules increase the distance. We no longer talk to strangers as we travel or at conferences and other large events, taking advantage of breaks in the schedule to make phone calls, check our social media and isolate ourselves in a cocoon of self-involvement. Some of us don’t even know our next-door neighbours, some of the most consequential strangers we could ever interact with.
In another fascinating sounding book The Power of Strangers: The Benefits of Connecting in a Suspicious World, Joe Keohane suggests that we have become lazy in our curiosity about each other. In Robert Scheffler’s review of the book he comments: “Joe Keohane demonstrated that when we do connect with strangers, we like it, we value it, and want to do it again. And it turns out there are many people and groups that can’t wait to sit with just about anyone (who knew?) and have a good chat—on a street corner, in a classroom, at a convention–about your life, your worldview, even (gulp) your political ideas, all free of agenda and free of conflict. Given the state we find ourselves in, talks like these can’t happen soon enough.”
Every stranger around us is a neighbour waiting to be known. So my invitation for you this week is to get out and interact with some of the consequential strangers you meet. Say hello to the person who serves you at the supermarket, or wave to all the neighbours you see as you walk. Or mask up, take a bus or train ride and say hello to people who sit with you. On longer trips you might get to know quite a bit about the person next to you. Suggest they mask up too. Let them know your ongoing concerns about the spread of COVID. Encourage them to stay safe. Who knows, you might save them from a nasty reinfection, be able to offer advice, learn something new or find a new friend through the conversation.
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Next Facebook Live!
Join Christine Sine and Elaine Breckenridge for a discussion on Celtic Spirituality and Rhythms of Life – Wednesday, July 20th at 9 am PT. Happening live in the Godspace Light Community Group on Facebook – but if you can’t catch the live discussion, you can catch up later on YouTube!
Another beautiful contemplative service to beckon us into the presence of God again this week.
A contemplative service with music in the spirit of Taize.
Carrie Grace Littauer, prayer leader, with music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers.
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-710-756.
Thank you for praying with us! www.saintandrewsseattle.org
by Tom Sine, originally posted here
Do you and your loved ones have plans for the summer of 2022? It seems like people all over the world are more than ready to return to summer as usual now that Covid seems to have run out of gas.
Christine and I are going to celebrate our 30th anniversary at our favorite retreat site on the coast at Anacortes, Washington. However, we have just discovered disappointing news. Per the New York Times, Covid has not in fact run out of gas. Quite the contrary! It is actually giving birth to new variants that are not only more infectious than the earlier ones, they will also require the creation of new vaccines.
“The newest omicron offshoot, BA.5, is sweeping across the United States. But spotty testing and data collection has significantly hampered the nation’s ability to accurately track the number of new cases. Some epidemiologists think there could be as many as 1 million new cases a day, and one expert called BA.5 “the worst version of the virus that we’ve seen.”
The latest subvariant is taking over quickly because it can easily dodge immunity from prior infections and vaccines, increasing the risk of reinfection.
Editorial Board of the Washington Post, July 7th 2022: “The worst virus variant has just arrived. The Pandemic is not over.”
I realize we are all very tired of dancing to the restraints of this exhausting pandemic. However, I suspect we are even much more tired of visiting loved ones in hospital and watching more of our young have their lives disrupted.
The CDC has not posted any guidelines yet that clearly outline how we, our young and our seniors, can have a great summer though starting the dance with this new Covid BA 5 … since there is no vaccine yet for the BA.5 sub-variant.
So when Christine and I go on our 30-year celebration this month, we decided to create our own guidelines drawing on what we have learned from the CDC and our care in grappling with this dreadful pandemic:
- We will wear our number N95 (or kn95) masks in public places
- We will eat exclusively in outdoor dining locations on our holiday
- We will only host friends on our retreat and when we are back home who are covid free out-of-doors during summer celebrations
- We will get vaccine shots for Covid BA.5 as soon as they are available
Do let us know how you plan to protect those you love from this deadly BA.5. We will share some of your ideas or other points of view with our readers … have a festive & safe summer 2022 always putting the care of others first as is the way of Jesus.
Welcoming your feedback and innovative responses. twsine@gmail.com
Featured photo altered from an original photo by Anshu A on Unsplash
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By Lilly Lewin
What would you serve if Jesus came over for dinner? Would it be a casual cookout or BBQ, or would you call in a caterer? Would you have multiple courses, or take away/carry out from your favorite restaurant?
I’d never seen the story of Mary and Martha in the light of hospitality until this week! Read the story and imagine the scene. What does it look like? Feel like? Are the disciples there too? Are there lots of other people? Or is it a more intimate group?
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.[a] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” LUKE 10:38-42 NIVAs they continued their journey, Jesus came to a village and a woman called Martha welcomed him to her house. She had a sister by the name of Mary who settled down at the Lord’s feet and was listening to what he said. But Martha was very worried about her elaborate preparations and she burst in, saying, “Lord, don’t you mind that my sister has left me to do everything by myself? Tell her to get up and help me!”
But the Lord answered her, “Martha, my dear, you are worried and bothered about providing so many things. Only a few things are really needed, perhaps only one. Mary has chosen the best part and you must not tear it away from her!” LUKE 10:38-42 J.B. Phillips New Testament
READ Passage one more time….
As they continued their travel, Jesus entered a village. A woman by the name of Martha welcomed him and made him feel quite at home. She had a sister, Mary, who sat before the Master, hanging on every word he said. But Martha was pulled away by all she had to do in the kitchen. Later, she stepped in, interrupting them. “Master, don’t you care that my sister has abandoned the kitchen to me? Tell her to lend me a hand.”
The Master said, “Martha, dear Martha, you’re fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it—it’s the main course, and won’t be taken from her.” LUKE 10:38-42 THE MESSAGE
What do you notice? What stands out to you?
I noticed that I also like to interrupt Jesus … just like Martha did … I talk and too often whine rather than stopping and listening to what Jesus has to say.
Imagine the Scene, where are you in the story?
Are you feeling more like Martha or Mary these days? Why?
One interpretation of this passage finds that Jesus might be saying to Martha “don’t overdo it … you don’t have to work so hard or go overboard with trying to please. Simple is just fine.” What do you think about that? How does this give YOU freedom or permission to live or serve or be more simply in your life with Jesus and others?
I am totally guilty of doing too much for a gathering, even a small gathering. It’s not easy for me to make things simple. And I have been trained that the house should be “perfect” in order to have someone over.
What if Jesus doesn’t mind if things are messy or if things aren’t complex? What if Jesus is inviting us to keep it simple? How does that free you and me up to have more peace? And more possibilities for hosting others and practicing hospitality?
Check out this painting by Georg Friedrich Stettner: Christ at the home of Martha and Mary and the other art on this site….what do you notice?
READ Meditation by Father Richard Rohr on Mary and Martha
PRACTICE:
How can you plan to be more PRESENT with Jesus this week? What do you need to do to remind yourself to be more present?
Martha was frustrated by lack of help and being stuck in the kitchen with “all the things” of hosting a dinner party. Jesus invites her to be present with him! NOT LATER that night, NOT THE NEXT DAY, BUT RIGHT NOW! We all have to wash dishes. So this week, make dishwashing your prayer practice. Let it be the time you are present to Jesus and with Jesus. Pray and talk to Jesus while you wash or load the dishwasher. Take time to listen too!
How can you Practice Hospitality this week?
PRINT OUT THE COLORING SHEET and do it as a family or on your own or with some friends. Sit Down at the Table with Jesus! Who do you want to invite to sit with you?
TABLE with Jesus coloring Sheet
When we have people around our table, Jesus is there with us! In Spirit and in each person present so let’s relax a bit more and enjoy!
Sit Down at the Table Coloring Sheet
Help us Jesus to keep it simple. Help us to relax in your love so we can love others. Help us to be present with you so we can be present with others. In your Name! Amen
©lillylewin and freerangeworship@gmail.com
Check out AT THE TABLE with JESUS Sacred Space Prayer Experience where the Martha and Mary Table is all about REST
Next Facebook Live!
Join Christine Sine and Elaine Breckenridge for a discussion on Celtic Spirituality and Rhythms of Life – Wednesday, July 20th at 9 am PT. Happening live in the Godspace Light Community Group on Facebook – but if you can’t catch the live discussion, you can catch up later on YouTube!
Editors Note: Each Thursday in July we are having an Artful Julybilee – a celebration of art through the exploration of our current theme. We have many talented artists and authors and will be featuring several each week culminating in a booklet at the end. Come explore the facets of what it means to be Living as Christ Lived: Towards Justice, Love, and Peace for All Creation through the lens of art. You can find Part One Here: Towards Peace For All Creation. Then head to part three and part four, or straight to our FREE convenient downloadable booklet!
Featured Photo Christine Sine, communion during a Celtic Retreat
The Prodigal Son
by Joy Lenton. Adapted from an original post by Joy Lenton, found on her site joylenton.com
During our walk of faith, especially when we falter or fall away, one of the most reassuring things is knowing that God never turns away from us. On the contrary, he waits with infinite patience and endless love for us to return to him.
God longs for us to develop a growing awareness of who he is and accept the amazing, unconditional love he has for us. This wondrous love gives us hope and strengthens us when we encounter problems.
“So he had this moment of self-reflection: ‘What am I doing here? Back home, my father’s hired servants have plenty of food. Why am I here starving to death? I’ll get up and return to my father, and I’ll say, ‘Father, I have done wrong—wrong against God and against you. I have forfeited any right to be treated like your son, but I’m wondering if you’d treat me as one of your hired servants?’ So he got up and returned to his father. The father looked off in the distance and saw the young man returning. He felt compassion for his son and ran out to him, enfolded him in an embrace, and kissed him.” — Luke 15: 17-20 The Voice
The Prodigal Son story celebrates the lost runaway’s eventual return to his father and the home where his heart truly belongs. It mirrors our relationship with God, who joyfully welcomes us back whenever we have strayed or got lost.
The Prodigal Son
The father stoops to comfort,
to welcome home his lost
and errant son. No rebuke.
No reproach. Only a ring
on his finger, a sizzling roast
dinner, and a fresh set of clothes.
This prodigal had strayed, lost
his way and lost himself
to baser things.
Turned his back, then turned
full circle to return again.
He came home as one who had
seen the seedy side of life,
the degradations of squandering
his inheritance, his wealth,
his soul on loose living.
He came with guilt and shame,
humiliated by his own
behaviour, by the state
he was in, expecting
to be treated as he thought
he deserved, but met with
grace and mercy instead.
More than that, he encountered
open arms and open heart, a warm
embrace, tears, forgiveness, peace,
acceptance, a kneeling father
pouring out nothing but love.
We are prodigals, stray sheep
who have wandered off
and squandered the gifts
our God has lavished
on us, without a thought.
Yet he receives us all, comes
running barefoot in our souls,
in his haste to comfort,
not to scold. And to hold us close,
this child he’s lost and esteems
as precious and dearly beloved.
Garden Inspiration Breath Prayer
by Christine Sine; photo below also by Christine of the peace rose in her garden.
This breath prayer was written one morning as I gazed out at the beauty of my garden, expressing my love towards all creation.
I breathe in and inhale my love for creation,
I breathe out and express my concern for our world.
I breathe in and know God cares for creation,
I breathe out and know God suffers with our world.
No pain is too small to make God weep,
Too big for God to change.
God’s love will transform all.
God’s love will bring new life.
The Great Loves
Love Covers
by Melissa Taft, photos by Melissa Taft. The quilt made for a friend’s baby, and two of Grandma’s quilts displayed at her funeral – one she made for a grandson and one for a granddaughter.
Once, a friend I held dear discovered she was moving far away. I had dreamed of our children continuing to grow up together. I didn’t know what to do with all the love that I had for her that could no longer be expressed in person, so I purposed to pour it out in a blanket for her unborn son. “Grief is love with nowhere to go” I once heard, and I believe it. I needed a place for that love to go, so I could move from grief to peace. My idea blossomed and I decided to make it a community project. I cut squares of interfacing and asked special people in her life to write a blessing or a verse or a wish for the baby. I stitched the quilt top, then carefully embroidered all the wishes and prayers and dreams onto the squares. I wanted each person’s unique handwriting to come through, so that my friend could see how a whole community stitched together tangible love to keep her baby warm. That it wasn’t just my love represented, but all of us. And indeed, years later it brought comfort and confirmation to them. I think a blanket was my go-to idea because that is how my grandmother expressed her love.
My Grandma May was a quilter, and she stitched blankets for new babies. She also made quilts for special people in her life, at different stages in their lives. I have several quilts from her, including one we made together. She often made a baby quilt and then a twin quilt for her preschooler grandchildren. Hand-stitched appliques of cowboys and sunbonnets and flowers so treasured that a few were featured at her funeral. We kept close her blanketing love, even when we outgrew the pattern.
Some of these quilts are worn, and a new project I’ve taken on is salvaging all those stitched-in prayers and dreams for me into one that is more useful to my adult self. It’s a way for me to honor my love for her and her love for me. And dreaming of this new project made me remember that community quilt I put together. It made me remember the time when my son was young, an illness left him gasping for air. In the cold and confusing ward of the hospital, amidst the beeps and the constant interruptions and intrusions -He was offered a blanket. Not a factory-made covering but one stitched of love for a hurting child, handmade for a stranger by a stranger to cloak protectively around the wound of fear and bring comfort and color to the room. He got to keep it, and it became a special comfort during times of illness.
So too I began to think of the blankets and hats knitted for newborns in the hospital – and the blankets made for the homeless. I think of my friend who spent a summer in Chios welcoming refugees; and how one of the biggest needs was baby carriers and blankets so an international group of strangers stepped up to provide. I think of the devastation of wildfires and how knitters around the world discovered a tangible string from their hands to the burned koalas who needed a place to heal and hide their paws. How often we welcome the new, the seekers of refuge, the wounded and ill, the disenfranchised – with love. Love flung from crochet hooks and threaded through needles to bring comfort, warmth, and care.
And so I looked anew at “Love Covers Over A Multitude of Sins.” Love does not dismiss or pretend. It does not ignore injustice for the sake of personal quiet, or offers carte blanche for the sinner, but offers instead balm to the sinned-against. Maybe love covers the sin of wounded wildlife – our climate calamity hubris laid bare. Maybe love covers the sin of borders and hoarders – bringing warmth and relief to those who seek refuge be it a far land or their own hometown. Love covers; whether it is healing a wound or injustice, or simply an expression of care from a loving heart. May you find the ways that love covers you – and find the ways to let your love cover others.
Enjoy the meditative focus of beautiful prayer cards. Open yourself to awe and wonder – or gift someone the joy of prayers and photographs by Christine Sine. Experience a piece of her excellent book through twelve prayers and reflections beautifully illustrated with photographs from Christine’s personal collection. Available in a single set, sets of three to share, or a convenient downloadable form to enjoy instantly. You can find these options and more in our shop!
Who doesn’t love the story of the Good Samaritan? As a child, it may have been one the first stories I read in my children’s Bible. If you have not read the story recently, you can find it in Luke 10:25-37.
Jesus tells this story as an answer to a lawyer’s question, “And just who is my neighbor?” The lawyer expected Jesus to define the word neighbor as a Jew who lived in close proximity. However, Jesus re-framed the lawyer’s question, “who is my neighbor?” by telling this parable. A traveler understood to be Jewish is robbed, beaten, and left for dead alongside the road. Both a Jewish priest and a Jewish temple assistant do not stop their journey to help the injured man. Then a third man, a Samaritan stops to give aid – quite generous aid. What is notable is that Samaritans and Jews despised each other citing religious, cultural, and even racial differences.
After telling this parable, Jesus then asked the lawyer, “Who acted as a neighbor to the man who fell in the hands of robbers?” The lawyer answers correctly by saying, “The one who showed mercy.”
Certainly, we have a teaching by Jesus about the importance of showing compassion and hospitality to strangers. It is about practicing love in action, which reveals the fullness of the kingdom of God. And yet this is also a parable of Jesus. And Jesus always used parables to wake up his listeners, often using subversive means.
Like our world today, the social context of Jesus and the Early Church was a multi-ethnic world, full of tension, suspicions and hostility between groups. This parable was asking all listeners not to simply listen but to rise above such hostility and to cross the boundaries of the fear of cultural, religious, and racial differences. This parable is about blowing apart social prejudice.
When this Gospel was read out loud in the early church, Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians (who also had trouble mixing) were being invited to come together, to hold hands, to touch one another, to get close, to become neighbors as illustrated by Jesus.
I cannot help but be reminded of a contemporary figure who – like Jesus – worked constantly to show us that a neighbor was not someone who lived in close proximity, or someone who looked and acted like us. Like Jesus, he used stories to show us that being a neighbor was love in action. And like Jesus, he was often just as subversive. I am thinking of Fred Rogers.
Mr. Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister. Then he followed Christ into the neighborhood and into television and into the hearts of children and adults alike. Fred had a vision that his television program could teach children about love and goodness and the dignity of every human being. And it was not just words. The people in his neighborhood, the actors he included in the series manifested diversity, including gender, racial and sexual diversity. Fred Rogers believed that cultural diversity and difference are to be celebrated.
There is one scene in the documentary of Mr. Roger’s career called “Won’t you be my Neighbor?” which reminds me of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Mr. Rogers was sitting on the edge of a children’s swimming pool holding a hose and spraying his feet. Onto the set walks Mr. Clemmons, the neighborhood policeman. “Oh hi Mr. Clemmons,” said Rogers. “It is such a hot day. I am cooling my feet with this water and it really feels nice. Would you like to join me?” Mr. Clemmons responded, “Oh that looks very nice indeed. But I don’t have a towel.” Mr. Roger’s had a towel around his neck and said, “That’s o.k. I am happy to share mine.” “Ok!” says Mr. Clemmons. He pulls off his shoes and socks and sits next to Rogers. Both men sit side by side immersing their feet in the water in the swimming pool. Sweet.
Sweet. But also, subversive. The year of that particular episode was 1969. Mr. Clemmons was an African American man sharing a foot bath and a towel with Mr. Rogers who was a Caucasian man.
This episode was created, filmed and aired by Rogers just a few days after a major news report. This news report had been widely televised, showing an angry Caucasian man throwing swimming pool chemicals into a public swimming pool where African Americans and Caucasians adults and children were swimming together. The pool had recently been declared as desegregated and yet here was this visible and violent display of protest.
Mr. Rogers had his own way of protesting violent action. He did so by reaching out to a person of color, demonstrating that it was a positive and pleasant thing to share water, a pool and even a towel. He could be subversive–just like Jesus!
Fred Rogers embodied what it meant to be a neighbor rising above prejudice and hostility. “Would you be my neighbor?” he sang; asking and living that question is the Good News in action. It is our highest calling. What neighbors, “others”, may fear and hate, ignore and exclude is ours to accept and include, celebrate and bless.
I often wish that Mr. Rogers was still alive to help us sing his song. “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood. It’s a beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Since we’re together we might as well say, please, won’t you be my neighbor?”
Now it is up to us to sing and live that song. How do we sing the song of Mr. Rogers who sang the song of Jesus? By speaking up when in the presence of racist or sexist jokes or bullying. By making efforts to reach out to those of different races, religions, economic classes and cultures. By learning how to proclaim and defend the rights and freedoms of all people. And most subversive, perhaps reaching out to those of different political parties. These days, that’s a tough one for me.
Fred Rogers sang another song called “It’s you I like. You make each day a special day by just being yourself.” That was the message of Jesus. Jesus saw past people’s beliefs and practices (unless they caused harm and then he named it) and into people’s hearts and declared them good. Like Mr. Rogers, may we learn creative and perhaps even subversive ways to do likewise.
Photo by Derick McKinney on Unsplash, the pool scene can be viewed by visiting https://misterrogers.org/videos/sharing-a-swimming-pool/
Digging Deeper: The Art of Contemplative Gardening
Christine Sine’s latest book is packed full of contemplative wisdom and inspiration for creating your own meditative focus. Whether a beginner or an expert gardener, enjoy the process alongside Christine! You don’t need a plot of land or even a proper pot – any small vessel will do. Bring new life to your morning prayers. Click for more details!
by Louise Conner, originally posted on the Circlewood blog The Ecological Disciple here: The Art of Creation: “Back” and Its Stories
For the past 20 years, Isabella Kirkland has documented flora and fauna in danger of extinction through paintings that combine techniques of Old Dutch Masters paintings with scientific accuracy learned through past experience as a taxidermist and current experience as a Research Associate at the California Academy of Sciences. Kirkland measures, photographs, draws, and observes firsthand (using live or preserved materials) the subjects of her paintings and then re-creates them with oil paint in anatomical accuracy and true-to-life scale. Each painting takes at least a year for her to complete, and each creates an awareness of the important of biodiversity and our current environmental problems.
Her Taxa collection includes six paintings that, combined, depict almost 400 species whose existence has each been deeply affected by human actions. Kirkland began working on the series after reading a list of the 100 most-endangered species in the United States.
Each painting in Taxa (the plural form of “taxon,” meaning order or arrangement), includes species of animals and plants who have been affected in particular ways by humans. The painting Gone features plants and animals that have become extinct, Trade—species that are harvested in the wild and sold through both legal and illegal markets, Collection—plants and animals that are treated as decorative objects, Ascendant—non-native species that have been introduced to the U.S. and are increasing and overtaking native species, Descendant—endangered species, and finally, the painting which I share within this post, Back—species which were either nearly extinct and have rebounded or were thought to be extinct, and have been rediscovered. In other words, species which have come back from extinction.
The forty-eight species in still-life Back have rebounded through sustained attempts to reintroduce them to their original habitats, and at times through sheer resilience.
Each of these species has its own story, many of which demonstrate the power humans have to change the outcome for species if research and sustained effort are brought to the work. Some in the painting, such as the bald eagle represented by the egg labeled #18, are poster children for regulation, education, and success; the stories of many others are less well-known.
Consider the Owens Pupfish (#35 in the picture). These natives of California’s Central Valley from the Owens River and associated sloughs and marshes, have an amazing survival story. During the California Water Wars of the 1920’s and 30’s, the diversion of water from the Owens River to the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area eliminated most of the pupfish’s habitat. Introduced species such as largemouth and smallmouth bass, brown trout, bluegill, crayfish, and bullfrogs further decimated the population. By 1948, the Owens Pupfish was thought to be extinct. Upon its rediscovery, pools were built and barriers erected to keep out nonnative predatory fish, but in 1967 it was listed as endangered, and in 1969, the pools which provided its habitat almost completely dried up due to weather causes. Certain employees of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife were aware of the urgent crisis and raced to an area called Fish Slough with buckets, nets, and aerators in an urgent effort to save the fish. They put 800 of the survivors into mesh cages in a nearby pool, intending to move them to better sites the following day. But, before leaving for the day, one worker, Phil Pister, checked on the fish and realized they were dying from a lack of oxygen due to poor placement in the water flow. With just two buckets on hand, he quickly gathered as many of the still-living fish as he could fit into the buckets and moved them to nearby pools with more aeration. The species survived—because of intense dedication, passion, and hard work (plus a dash of luck). In this article, Phil Pister tells this story in detail, and also gives an overall picture of the importance of saving those species that are at risk.
As Isabella Kirkland herself says,
“In-depth study of a single species can yield a world of information: each life cycle is deeply entwined with that of others in its community. The more we learn about the intricacies of one organism and its ecosystem, the more we can see the limits of our current knowledge. The more we discover, the more we comprehend our responsibility for every other living thing.”
The Owens pupfish is just one of the species portrayed in Back—and its story is just one example. Each species has its own story. Some of those stories involve human care and intervention that can inspire us to act in similar ways. The Franklin tree (#32) was preserved by a man named John Bartram who collected seeds that grew into the only Franklin trees then still in existence and which all Franklin trees are now descended from. The dedication of Japanese ornithologist Hiroshi Hasegawa has brought back the once-believed extinct short-tailed albatross (#38). The large blue butterfly (#21) became extinct in Britain despite conservation efforts until the research of scientist Jeremy Thomas and associates was able to pinpoint the causes of its demise (an introduced species of red ants that instead of having a cooperative relationship with the butterfly as the native species had, instead attacked and killed them). As a result of this knowledge, the blue butterfly of Sweden was successfully introduced into an intentionally and carefully recreated habitat that met the needs of the butterfly, needs which had been discovered through this research.
Reading these stories brings home the danger of thinking that “small” actions have no real consequences in the bigger world. For instance, releasing an aquarium fish into the wild may seem like no big deal, but it can have effects on the natural populations that we may not foresee. Planting a nonnative species can devastate an ecosystem one species at a time if that nonnative species happens to be invasive or predatory to the native species already present. On the flip side, eliminating detrimental species can have a positive ripple effect as the native flora and fauna become reestablished and planting something that can create habitat for a struggling species in your area can be an important part of rebuilding the health of a particular species, and even by extension, an ecosystem. Through our presence, we change our surroundings; by caring and learning, we can make those changes positive for our environment, rather than negative.
If you want to find out more about some of the species in Back, check out the links included here: Forest Owlet, Cebu Flowerpecker, Madagascar Red Owl, Jamaican Iguana, Kakapo, Antiguan Racer, Lord Howe Island Stick Insect, and Lange’s Metalmark. You can also search for the other species listed in the painting key above.
What can be learned from the type of careful observation found in the art of Isabella Kirkland? Are there actions you can begin or end that can help foster the struggling plants and animals in the area where you live?
To see the rest of the Taxa paintings and more of the work of Isabella Kirkland, visit her website.
Feel free to contact Louise directly at info@circlewood.online.
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