As my mom inched closer to death, I gave her two photo books. She loved Solkaer's Black Sun. Fukase's Ravens less so, but you see the theme I was working on. Through that long period, we were working to finish my wife's film. It's a swirl. It is always a swirl trying to lock in the final form. I'd bounce from trying to get one more detail from one of my mother's favorite tales, to trying to give the right notes to what the cut of my wife's film was eliciting. Everything reached the end around the same time and then off we went on the road to share the film, never quite getting the breath to place the grief, the loss, and then wham! We too got hit with Covid, again, and despite all the shots and precautions. We've lifted off again, caught up in the murmuration, unclear of the design, and just trying to catch on to the changing shapes. Thanks for sharing all this Chloe.
Ted, I so appreciate you sharing that. Black Sun is something else, it feels like a spell book. Raven’s was a bold move! I love what you were going for. I wonder if part of the satisfaction of seeing the movement that murmuration creates is because it’s actually something so familiar to us, but which we don’t have a visual reference for—the energetic swirls, ripples, unexpected shapes and push-pulls of life. Catching on to changing shapes, as you say… I’m glad that your mother had someone mining for her tales at the end, may we all be so fortunate. Thank you, Ted.
I'm so sorry to hear of the covid Chloe. I hope you're on the mend, and if not yet then soon.
Beautiful words, aching with truth. "...creeping display of arboreal attunement" is pure poetry.
I have felt much of the same sense of guilt this last week. I am at the point where it is crippling to read the news, yet I want to remain informed of what is happening. Yet in doing so I feel I am a spectator in something I do not want to be part of, or that I have no right to purely be reading about from half a world away. Even today, when sitting down for lunch, I had pangs of "how dare I have the freedom to do such as sit here and eat what I like in such safety." Argh.
As ever, you express the inexpressible, and my heart is thankful.
Re: murmurations. I have been lucky to see quite a few. They are unreal. I second the notion that they may be doing it purely for the thrill.
Nathan, thank you, love. Yesterday was brutal, today is manageable, ultimately all is well.
I hear you, the push-pull of exposure is so tough to manage, especially when there’s so little that one can actively do. It can turn into a sort of self-imposed torture, by way of attempt at some kind of solidarity. I don’t know what the answer, or the ‘right’ thing to do, is, but I find myself in a place where celebrating the beautiful isn’t only permissible, it’s paramount. I feel we owe everyone who is navigating danger a deep sense of gratitude for our own safety.
I’m so happy you’ve witnessed many a murmuration. My hope is for humans to one day amass in collective attunement in such a way.
I’ll watch the clips shortly as I know my brain will short circuit wanting to join the ballet of birds. (They’re like watching visual music.)
I have been limiting my exposure to TV and also trying to limit what I read. I want to know ‘enough’ but I don’t want to dull my brightness too much. I don’t feel guilt for enjoying the beauty of our world. I believe my role is to remind others that beauty exists - just as you have done here - because that knowledge is the only way through. Nature is extraordinary. No matter what happens the sun continues to rise and set. Thank goodness.
I had a feeling that you’d share the same fervent desire to join the Birds as I do, dear Beth. I've been thinking a lot about the miraculous nature of sunrise, and how the Birds so kindly celebrate it, when we so often forget.
Thank you, Beth. It's always a joy to see your name 💗
Chloe, I hope you feel better soon. What an interesting post and brilliant photos. I read an article a few years back that showed how mathematicians had showed that this phenomenal is actually quite mathematical, with birds moving both individually and in unison to keep the distance between them constant. It's a wonder. Thank you for sharing.
Ben, thank you so much for reading and for your good wishes! I'm not all that surprised that there's some glorious math involved! There seems to be behind so many beautiful things. A wonder, indeed...🙏
+1. I hope you recover quickly and fully, Chloe! I'm loving the videos and the comments here too, especially "visual music", the idea that it's mathematics in motion, and the great value of admiring the beauty of Nature. ❤️
I'm glad you're on the mend, and thank you for this beautiful tribute to starlings and bird murmuration! May we all remember to look away from the horrors of the human world and find inspiration as the real world--the interactions that weave this living planet--goes about its business regardless of our species' atrocities. Blessings to you!
I'm writing my first post right now, in a noisy coffeeshop instead of my quiet condo because my condo is under contract for sale, and the house inspector is there this morning. So if I don't get derailed by real estate madness, you should have something from me in your inbox before too long. (Well, tomorrow your time!)
Well, it's been a whirlwind two days, but I have two posts written and am madly trying to keep up with new subscribers and comments and the details of two simultaneous real estate transactions. I hope you are feeling ever so much better!
Gosh that all seems like a lot - I hope the real estate stuff is going smoothly. The Cooper's Hawk that you got to photograph is incredible, those neck muscles!
The real estate stuff is going as smoothly as it can. :) It was such a treat to have the Cooper's sit and gabble at me as I passed. I felt honored that the bird allowed me close.
Two quick thoughts and shares: Not starlings, but Portland friends probably think of the swifts that put on show nightly during the migration season. People/families gather on a hill next to the elementary as they go into the chimney. Saw it once, lovely thing.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHgEAIK8P18&t=34s
Wow, the sounds of the mumuration in the video are incredible...I might need to figure out how to sample.
Oh my goodness, those Swifts!!! The spiral they're making! Wow, thank you so much for sharing that. We just watched it twice and kept saying "Wow!" at ever greater volumes. I can see why people gather to watch, how wonderful to have seen it in person.
Aren't the sounds great? People generally insist on putting music over the top of the videos of murmuration, and I understand the impulse of course, but the sound itself is half the joy!
This one gave me chills. You have an uncanny ability to articulate thoughts and emotions that I used to believe were too sacred for words. Best of the best.
I hope you recover soon, my dear. Take it easy, and don't feel guilty. This is a beautiful ode to the starlings. There's something so moving and meditative about their movements, bringing us back to nature and humanity. You evoked it well with your lovely pen.
Thank you so much, my love. There really is something so moving about their dance. Part of me is absolutely desperate to understand it, and another part delights in the mystery of it. 'Lovely pen' made me smile so much! Thank you, you magical being ✨
Yes to joy! I'm always flabbergasted when humans still won't accept that other beings also have deep emotional lives that includes everything from sadness to joy. Thank you for this reminder. I hope you feel better soon.
Yes to joy! I might get that on a t-shirt. Thank you, Troy. It's wild that there's still any question around the deep emotional lives of other beings, it feels so archaic I can't get my head around it. Thank you for reading, and being here in the comments 💛
So sorry to hear you're sick this week, Chloe. It is horrible to feel joy or satisfaction in anything given the atrocities that are happening at this moment, and the inevitable momentum all this hatred and vengeance will generate far into the future. I listened to Ezra Klein's latest essay and it provided some solace just hearing his thoughtful and empathetic viewpoint in the face of this conflict. We can only hope there will be more voices like his in positions of political power.
I became infatuated with starlings earlier this year. I had no idea what an incredible virtuosity they possess in terms of vocalization. I went down a huge rabbit hole and wrote a short story with the starling as my point of inspiration. https://www.catchrelease.net/p/story-charlie-and-the-starling
Thanks a lot, Ben. Also thank you for providing a decent chunk of listening entertainment while I've been wrapped up in bed! I think that piece that you mentioned is a big part of it, that there are the atrocities playing out in real time, and simultaneously the heaviness of knowing that the impact will last long, long after we're all gone. I'll find Ezra Klein's latest and have a listen, thank you for the suggestion.
And yes! Starlings mimicry is something else. If you ever find yourself in London you have to let David & I take you to a spot in Borough Market where you get harassed by very bold city Starlings. They also seem to delight in the acoustics of the market, positioning themselves in just the right spot to amplify their songs and taunts.
PS here it’s Franklins gulls at the moment. I sat for an hour this morning hoping they would take off from the water, there were probably 1000 or more, but alas they were content on the water and I had to go to work.
This is so magical. Beautiful words as always with a voice like honey. I hope one day to be as talented as you are, your stella work inspires me constantly 💕
As my mom inched closer to death, I gave her two photo books. She loved Solkaer's Black Sun. Fukase's Ravens less so, but you see the theme I was working on. Through that long period, we were working to finish my wife's film. It's a swirl. It is always a swirl trying to lock in the final form. I'd bounce from trying to get one more detail from one of my mother's favorite tales, to trying to give the right notes to what the cut of my wife's film was eliciting. Everything reached the end around the same time and then off we went on the road to share the film, never quite getting the breath to place the grief, the loss, and then wham! We too got hit with Covid, again, and despite all the shots and precautions. We've lifted off again, caught up in the murmuration, unclear of the design, and just trying to catch on to the changing shapes. Thanks for sharing all this Chloe.
Ted, I so appreciate you sharing that. Black Sun is something else, it feels like a spell book. Raven’s was a bold move! I love what you were going for. I wonder if part of the satisfaction of seeing the movement that murmuration creates is because it’s actually something so familiar to us, but which we don’t have a visual reference for—the energetic swirls, ripples, unexpected shapes and push-pulls of life. Catching on to changing shapes, as you say… I’m glad that your mother had someone mining for her tales at the end, may we all be so fortunate. Thank you, Ted.
I'm so sorry to hear of the covid Chloe. I hope you're on the mend, and if not yet then soon.
Beautiful words, aching with truth. "...creeping display of arboreal attunement" is pure poetry.
I have felt much of the same sense of guilt this last week. I am at the point where it is crippling to read the news, yet I want to remain informed of what is happening. Yet in doing so I feel I am a spectator in something I do not want to be part of, or that I have no right to purely be reading about from half a world away. Even today, when sitting down for lunch, I had pangs of "how dare I have the freedom to do such as sit here and eat what I like in such safety." Argh.
As ever, you express the inexpressible, and my heart is thankful.
Re: murmurations. I have been lucky to see quite a few. They are unreal. I second the notion that they may be doing it purely for the thrill.
Nathan, thank you, love. Yesterday was brutal, today is manageable, ultimately all is well.
I hear you, the push-pull of exposure is so tough to manage, especially when there’s so little that one can actively do. It can turn into a sort of self-imposed torture, by way of attempt at some kind of solidarity. I don’t know what the answer, or the ‘right’ thing to do, is, but I find myself in a place where celebrating the beautiful isn’t only permissible, it’s paramount. I feel we owe everyone who is navigating danger a deep sense of gratitude for our own safety.
I’m so happy you’ve witnessed many a murmuration. My hope is for humans to one day amass in collective attunement in such a way.
Glad to hear you're improving. Rest up, maintain that celebration of the beautiful.
And yes, that would be a true wonder if humans ever attained such a state of collective wellbeing.
I’ll watch the clips shortly as I know my brain will short circuit wanting to join the ballet of birds. (They’re like watching visual music.)
I have been limiting my exposure to TV and also trying to limit what I read. I want to know ‘enough’ but I don’t want to dull my brightness too much. I don’t feel guilt for enjoying the beauty of our world. I believe my role is to remind others that beauty exists - just as you have done here - because that knowledge is the only way through. Nature is extraordinary. No matter what happens the sun continues to rise and set. Thank goodness.
Take care dear Chloe. Get well soon dear soul.
I had a feeling that you’d share the same fervent desire to join the Birds as I do, dear Beth. I've been thinking a lot about the miraculous nature of sunrise, and how the Birds so kindly celebrate it, when we so often forget.
Thank you, Beth. It's always a joy to see your name 💗
Beautiful words. Get well soon Chloe. Peace, and birds.
Thank you Simon, and to you.
Chloe, I hope you feel better soon. What an interesting post and brilliant photos. I read an article a few years back that showed how mathematicians had showed that this phenomenal is actually quite mathematical, with birds moving both individually and in unison to keep the distance between them constant. It's a wonder. Thank you for sharing.
Ben, thank you so much for reading and for your good wishes! I'm not all that surprised that there's some glorious math involved! There seems to be behind so many beautiful things. A wonder, indeed...🙏
+1. I hope you recover quickly and fully, Chloe! I'm loving the videos and the comments here too, especially "visual music", the idea that it's mathematics in motion, and the great value of admiring the beauty of Nature. ❤️
Thank you so much, Lorraine. It's been lovely to see all the ways that murmuration inspires and moves people ❤️
I'm glad you're on the mend, and thank you for this beautiful tribute to starlings and bird murmuration! May we all remember to look away from the horrors of the human world and find inspiration as the real world--the interactions that weave this living planet--goes about its business regardless of our species' atrocities. Blessings to you!
As if by magic...thank you so much, Susan! I second you prayer, and send you blessings. I'm excited for Practicing Terraphilia.
I'm writing my first post right now, in a noisy coffeeshop instead of my quiet condo because my condo is under contract for sale, and the house inspector is there this morning. So if I don't get derailed by real estate madness, you should have something from me in your inbox before too long. (Well, tomorrow your time!)
I'm very much looking forward to it! Hoping the real estate-ness of it all isn't too taxing.
Well, it's been a whirlwind two days, but I have two posts written and am madly trying to keep up with new subscribers and comments and the details of two simultaneous real estate transactions. I hope you are feeling ever so much better!
Gosh that all seems like a lot - I hope the real estate stuff is going smoothly. The Cooper's Hawk that you got to photograph is incredible, those neck muscles!
The real estate stuff is going as smoothly as it can. :) It was such a treat to have the Cooper's sit and gabble at me as I passed. I felt honored that the bird allowed me close.
Feel better, Chloe!
Two quick thoughts and shares: Not starlings, but Portland friends probably think of the swifts that put on show nightly during the migration season. People/families gather on a hill next to the elementary as they go into the chimney. Saw it once, lovely thing.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHgEAIK8P18&t=34s
Wow, the sounds of the mumuration in the video are incredible...I might need to figure out how to sample.
Also, kind of random, but I love the song "Black Starling" by Pure Bathing Culture. https://open.spotify.com/track/5yoF3SZuARlfd7RoEo4Kjv?si=a2ee963074ab4a39
Oh my goodness, those Swifts!!! The spiral they're making! Wow, thank you so much for sharing that. We just watched it twice and kept saying "Wow!" at ever greater volumes. I can see why people gather to watch, how wonderful to have seen it in person.
Aren't the sounds great? People generally insist on putting music over the top of the videos of murmuration, and I understand the impulse of course, but the sound itself is half the joy!
Thank you for sharing the song, too. I'm into it.
This one gave me chills. You have an uncanny ability to articulate thoughts and emotions that I used to believe were too sacred for words. Best of the best.
Debi, what a kind and generous thing to say. I'm greatly moved by your words. Thank you, friend.
I hope you recover soon, my dear. Take it easy, and don't feel guilty. This is a beautiful ode to the starlings. There's something so moving and meditative about their movements, bringing us back to nature and humanity. You evoked it well with your lovely pen.
Thank you so much, my love. There really is something so moving about their dance. Part of me is absolutely desperate to understand it, and another part delights in the mystery of it. 'Lovely pen' made me smile so much! Thank you, you magical being ✨
We'll never know fully how other beings are 'programmed', so maybe that's the beauty of that - the wondering. You're the magical being!
You are as wise as you are magical 💕
As are you! :-*
Yes to joy! I'm always flabbergasted when humans still won't accept that other beings also have deep emotional lives that includes everything from sadness to joy. Thank you for this reminder. I hope you feel better soon.
Yes to joy! I might get that on a t-shirt. Thank you, Troy. It's wild that there's still any question around the deep emotional lives of other beings, it feels so archaic I can't get my head around it. Thank you for reading, and being here in the comments 💛
Beautiful Chloe. And get well swoon!
Thank you, darling.
In a sharing of guilt (and even with a minor case of pneumonia to go with your COVID), I offer you this:
What kind of times are these
when a conversation about trees
is almost a crime
because it implies silence
about so many atrocities.
—Bertolt Brecht
Bryan, I’m so sorry to hear you’ve not been well. I very much hope you’re on the mend, and I send a gentle hug in your direction across the Atlantic.
Thank you very, very much for the Brecht quote. It has cemented my commitment to orientating towards beauty.
So sorry to hear you're sick this week, Chloe. It is horrible to feel joy or satisfaction in anything given the atrocities that are happening at this moment, and the inevitable momentum all this hatred and vengeance will generate far into the future. I listened to Ezra Klein's latest essay and it provided some solace just hearing his thoughtful and empathetic viewpoint in the face of this conflict. We can only hope there will be more voices like his in positions of political power.
I became infatuated with starlings earlier this year. I had no idea what an incredible virtuosity they possess in terms of vocalization. I went down a huge rabbit hole and wrote a short story with the starling as my point of inspiration. https://www.catchrelease.net/p/story-charlie-and-the-starling
Thanks a lot, Ben. Also thank you for providing a decent chunk of listening entertainment while I've been wrapped up in bed! I think that piece that you mentioned is a big part of it, that there are the atrocities playing out in real time, and simultaneously the heaviness of knowing that the impact will last long, long after we're all gone. I'll find Ezra Klein's latest and have a listen, thank you for the suggestion.
And yes! Starlings mimicry is something else. If you ever find yourself in London you have to let David & I take you to a spot in Borough Market where you get harassed by very bold city Starlings. They also seem to delight in the acoustics of the market, positioning themselves in just the right spot to amplify their songs and taunts.
I would love to hear that someday!
PS here it’s Franklins gulls at the moment. I sat for an hour this morning hoping they would take off from the water, there were probably 1000 or more, but alas they were content on the water and I had to go to work.
Truly captivating story and images❤️
Thank you so much, Diane 💗🪶
This is so magical. Beautiful words as always with a voice like honey. I hope one day to be as talented as you are, your stella work inspires me constantly 💕
You say the sweetest things. Thank you so much, my love 💗