Story Info
Story Info
Jess Kovach
Hangars Beach, Fl Atlantic Ocean
2021
Type of Wounded Place
Story & Experience
We held a Global Earth Exchange at the water’s edge in Florida on the Atlantic coast.
Many sea turtles had nested and laid eggs the night before all along this beach. We could see the mama turtles tracks coming up from the waters and returning after burying her eggs in the sand.
Our group spoke of the grief and heartbreak of the ecological health of the Florida waters and our own inner waters that have felt such pain during the pandemic. So many polluted waters : 320 manatees died from starvation due to fertilizer induced algae growing in waters, mass young fish die offs in the estuaries, the collapse of many ocean lives due to global warming, rising rates of human suicides, of feeling often hopeless, so many we know who are dying of cancers, feeling our waters of grief well up from the isolation from the pandemic.
We walked the water’s edge feeling into the place holding us in this moment. There were feelings shared of holding the broken in the wholeness of this place. Everything is held here…every drop of water, broken shell, and grain of sand. The living and the dead all held here.
It felt larger than words. We collected pieces from the beach symbolizing our grief and gifted an act of beauty to the place that held us.
Just as we finished the gift of beauty. The rain came. It was received. So grateful for this experience.
We held a Global Earth Exchange at the water’s edge in Florida on the Atlantic coast.
Many sea turtles had nested and laid eggs the night before all along this beach. We could see the mama turtles tracks coming up from the waters and returning after burying her eggs in the sand.
Our group spoke of the grief and heartbreak of the ecological health of the Florida waters and our own inner waters that have felt such pain during the pandemic. So many polluted waters : 320 manatees died from starvation due to fertilizer induced algae growing in waters, mass young fish die offs in the estuaries, the collapse of many ocean lives due to global warming, rising rates of human suicides, of feeling often hopeless, so many we know who are dying of cancers, feeling our waters of grief well up from the isolation from the pandemic.
We walked the water’s edge feeling into the place holding us in this moment. There were feelings shared of holding the broken in the wholeness of this place. Everything is held here…every drop of water, broken shell, and grain of sand. The living and the dead all held here.
It felt larger than words. We collected pieces from the beach symbolizing our grief and gifted an act of beauty to the place that held us.
Just as we finished the gift of beauty. The rain came. It was received. So grateful for this experience.
Why this Place?
Hangars Beach, Fl Atlantic Ocean
We chose this location to connect with Mother Ocean as a place many waters of Florida flow into.
Act of Beauty
Say more about your actions and activity
We collected items that represented ur grief in the form of broken shells and sticks. They were encircled by beautiful shells full and whole. In the center a stick with a feather and seaweed.
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