Waterside

Let Bear Move 

“Enchantment stirs care and kinship. To be struck so deeply by uncertain forces and compelled to live out their next verse... to be propelled into motion, possessed and overcome by Wild Gods and unknown dances” 

A collective of hearts and hands come together to wrangle and weave, a site-specific portals made of Alderwood.  The first of these public installations, by Megan Holdfast- “Imminence/Land/Bear entangles with Waterside/Alder/Portal” is placed at the threshold of land & water. 

Bear is stretched & suspended with Alder portal.  We came together to draw tendrils, connection lines in the sand & fill Bear’s heart with cob & medicines.  

Tara Shilo, writer & raccoon, resonates and responds to this work with prose: 

“When we went to place, and through the motions, a chatter crescendo through blood, vocation, and place, a cascade of ancestral characters slither in. Commune, converse, consecrate – without so much of a word from us.   

It all happened at the water’s edge; the betrayal, the devotion, the aldering. 

Let Bear Move”  - Tara Shilo

Portal 

Together, it took 3 days to build the portal. 

One the first, we wove the structure. All hands in. 

On the second, the portal was raised and secured in place- on the water’s edge where it nested itself amongst tidal energies.  

On the third, Bear was suspended with Alder Portal.  We celebrated with friends. We feasted from the garden- Raccoon & Pumpkin carver made bread, pumpkin soup, beans and apple dessert delights. We came together to draw tendrils, weave connection lines in the sand with stones & filled Bear’s heart with cob & medicines.  

The soft, intuitive heart and keen eyes of Mandy document these moments capturing light & hands in motion.  

When stories are lived and told, lived and told- concentric muscle and tendrils are made.  A deepening occurs and this is how we arrive at a very sacred place. A threshold created through intersections of meaning, practice, intent, time & space.  

•••∞••• 

Bear is a Wild God 

She is a force of rebellion, renewal, revolution 

Fierce life keeper 

Shapeshifter 

Embrace the shift 

Exalt oneself in body with Land 

Meet the threshold 

•••∞••• 

Grief 

Grief be to distraction, dismemberment and placelessness. Grief be to the played-out stories of dualism. Look around and know life. As Shilo says: Listen to moon’s plea, go to water, visit often.  

I grieve the pillaging of Mountains, Water shed, Earth & Sea without any feeling. 

Not seeing a living world is a danger. 

How do we practice deep living?  

With care and urgency- like meeting Bear in the woods as we gather, weave, entangle & become more. 

I am here to learn with Bear. To become two, than one.  

•••∞••• 

Bear Spirit, Water Soul 

Earth Body, Human Heart 

Bear Spirit, Water Soul 

Earth Body, Human Heart 

•••∞•••