Beautiful day celebrating the confluence of river and ocean! Making a water wheel mandala and Radical Joy Bird, symbol of playfully lifting spirits in hard times. with joy (noticing and appreciating what we love most, showing up with hearts minds and bodies) and grief (for the degradation and rising of the waters, the suffering of people, plants and animals, the unintended consequences of human progress) Making art from the heart to honor the world we love (water!!!) to be the change that we want to see. How do you enJOY this life, this planet?

Several of us also visited a small permanent art installment of ancient Cedar tree trunks in a small circle surrounded by newer, younger Fir and Pine. The pathway of carved stone prayers to the nature beings was to ‘teach us and show us the way’, a fitting prayer for our day and for our devotion to taking care of these wounded places and transforming grief and loss to gratitude. This is one of 5 sites in the Columbia River Basin dedicated to deeper understanding and a re-discovery of what was ‘already there’ when Lewis & Clark’s Discovery Corp traveled through. From the website: These are “teachable places,” transformed and reimagined to explore the confluence of history, culture and ecology in our region. Each work references a passage from the Lewis and Clark journals as a snapshot in time, while comparing it with the deeper story. Visit http://journeybook.confluenceproject.org/ 

It was, once again, a joy and a privilege to share this day with others all over the world! It adds such reality to our knowledge of the ‘rising tide’. IT was profound for me to read all the stories so far posted, and have the realization of how visibly and real the wounds are…so much to hold and to love.