I’m attaching a YouTube video called “Dylan Winter and the Starling Murmurations” forwarded to me yesterday morning by my friend Richard. In the midst of so much bad news, this astonishing performance of starlings, those little birds many of us have learned to hate, is a reminder of our ability to communicate and cooperate; surely if these birds can do it, we can too!
I have many examples although it took some dredging to dig them up. Some are small—the vendor at our Farmer’s Market this morning who put my big bag of scissors behind her counter for me to reclaim. Why did I bring a dozen or so scissors to the Market? Because the knife-and scissors sharpener is usually there, manning his outdoor counter, but this cold morning he must have decided to stay in bed.
He’s also another example of what I mean: for years I tried to see if my cheerful “hello” would pierce his notorious crustiness, to no effect. Then, a few months ago, I forgot the bag of knives I left for him to sharpen; he called me hours later, I went back to collect them and pay, and suddenly we were two human beings talking to each other. Ever since then he’s greeted me with a big wave, calling me “Girlie”—which once I might have objected to, but not now. Neither of us can remember our “real” first names; maybe I’ll greet him next time with “Boyoh.”
Another piece of good news—four inches of new, soft white snow last night, making a dent in our decades long drought here in New Mexico.
Only a dent—but still…
And finally, the great outpouring of good wishes that followed my January 22 post, mostly devoted to the terrible threat to choice but also mentioning my birthday: almost six hundred messages. I recognized only a handful of names. So I’m hoping that any one of you who reads this and would like to receive an announcement of my next book, Little Brother, out in April, will let me know. I don’t want to crowd your inbox, which probably like mine is full of endless political solicitations.
I’ll be doing readings in the spring and so the book announcement—if you want it—will include information about a reading and signing in your neighborhood.
And how wonderful is that!
[To be sent information about Sallie’s readings in your area, please subscribe to her email list below (and add your zip code) or private message her on Facebook and ask to be notified about readings in your area (we will invite you on Facebook).]
Enjoyed these short joy-inducing
Narratives🌹
Amazing. Watching this filled me with a feeling of hope for…everything!
The video of starlings by Dylan Winter is breathtaking. I don’t remember seeing birds swarm before I was an adult and living in cities in Northern California. Always then, I stopped to watch, gawking no matter the sidewalk traffic going on around me, until the birds moved on. Every time, the sight of birds speeding as a group, turning, banking, diving, swooping, curling around in and out of their designs gave my body an orgasmic sort of swoop of its own in sync with the thrilling sight above. In the 60’s certain modern dance choreographers were grasped by the sight and used their dancers to swoop and swarm as birds do. I’ve long tried to write a poem that would capture the sight, the feeling, but so far I’ve been unable to do that. Some of Nature’s sights-experiences are beyond words. In his video D.W. wonders how the starlings flock as they do but dancers, and people who’ve reclaimed the intuition the patriarchy crushed in most of us, can tell you that they do it through their kinetic and intuitive sense of each other, letting them fly so amazingly close to each other without crashes or hesitation. No wonder we humans love joining flocking birds in this experience, enjoying reclaiming this ability of ours that we had in The Time Before (the patriarchy) when many groups possessed and used this aspect of being part of Nature. Yes, what a difference we humans could make for the better if groups among us could join in this way to ward off predators of the political and business world (etc.) sort, if we could live in such positive unity, each one empowered within herself, within the group. This huge group of starlings is such a powerful experience to watch, I’m going to return to the video to watch it again and again. Beautiful, wonder-full. What a gift this sharing is on the part of D. W. and S. B.
I love this murmuration video so much! Thank you for reminding us of the joy to be found in the world’s beauty and mystery, Sallie.