Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Moving closer

In the flurry and chaos of my work day yesterday, preparing for a workshop, I came across the footage that I've pasted as a link below. I found it deeply moving, watching elephants in the presence of death. I was struck by their solemn and tender response to the remains - the way they step towards the physicality of death, not away from it. Seeing them fondling the bones - the act seemed both sacred and intimate. Some might say I'm anthropomorphosing here, but the sight of them made me weep.
This morning, preparing to leave my warm cave for the chilly Dunedin outdoors, I donned a jacket which I recently picked up from my sister Annie's home, when I visited for her ashes ceremony in March. In the pocket I found her gloves - doubtless last worn by her own, still achingly familiar hands. With the elephants fresh in my memory, I uncurled them from each other, turned them over, touched them with reverence, pulled them onto my fingers, kissed them...

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10 comments:

  1. Melissa GreenMay 17, 2011 at 4:12 PM

    Oh, Pam, what a heart-rending post. The elephants, so reverent and quietly observing and touching bones of other elephants, seem to understand their own mortality somehow because it is, as you say, sacred and intimate. And for you to link this moving film and evidence of sentient beings with your tenderly unfolding your dead sister's gloves, found in her coat pocket, when she was the last one to imprint them with her touch and her scent--that is what made me weep. Is there such a thing as a lovely depiction of sorrow? xox

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  2. susan t. landryMay 17, 2011 at 5:50 PM

    pam, what a beautifully written post; what a poignant reminder to find the gloves. and the elephants....

    you may like, if you havent read any of it, cynthia moss's writing on elephants. she has studied them in the field for 40 years, i believe. her books are extraordinary portraits of these sentient creatures.

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  3. Marylinn KellyMay 18, 2011 at 1:00 PM

    Through understanding, acknowledging and connecting what is clearly grieving by the elephants to the discovery of your sister's glove you've given us such a moving post. It is a still place where we can pull to the side of the road and simply consider, just be quiet and feel.

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  4. Pam MorrisonMay 21, 2011 at 2:51 PM

    Thanks Melissa for your sensitive response. It's surprising, what gifts come, and in what form. I'm grateful for the timing of this. xp

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  5. Pam MorrisonMay 21, 2011 at 2:57 PM

    Thanks Susan. I hadn't heard of cynthia moss - I'll tuck that away for following up. I look forward to it.

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  6. Pam MorrisonMay 21, 2011 at 3:06 PM

    Marylinn, I'm glad. I like the idea that through our blogs (for ourselves and others) we pull over to a quiet place and consider / feel.

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  7. Kay CookeMay 21, 2011 at 7:15 PM

    That's so beautiful Pam. Sorry about your sister - sister's are so special.

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  8. Pam MorrisonMay 23, 2011 at 2:38 AM

    Thanks Kay. My sister died seven years ago, and I miss her. We have just buried her ashes in the exuberant company of a clutch of grandchildren she never met.

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  9. John BJune 5, 2011 at 4:46 AM

    You brought her back for just a teeny while , writing about her gloves.
    You have to actively get yourself into gloves,and once in you make them come alive, like puppets of yourself. Annie truly put herself out there into her life, and made the life she was given come more alive.

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  10. Pam MorrisonJune 5, 2011 at 5:07 AM

    That's very true jb. It's a nice metaphor for truly climbing into life - each finger wriggling into its woollen finger bit - right to the tip. And yes - that she did!

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