Page 139 - Dark Matter:Women Witnessing Issue2

Desire, I mused after my grandsons’ visit, is a double-­‐edged sword. Desire, want, and need constellate

the fear of more loss. The only way to deal with fear is to let go of the outcome, to accept the cycles as

they come and go. I think this is another lesson that the cardinals have been trying to teach me

through their presence and absence over the last twenty years. Today I do my best not to project into

the future with respect to cardinals or grandsons. I take the gifts offered, understanding that as with

any act of grace from Nature, there is always a cresting of feeling, awe with its accompanying “high,”

and then a letting go.

Sara Wright is a naturalist and a writer. She lives in a little log cabin in the

woods by a brook with two small dogs and two doves. She writes stories about

the animals and plants that live here on her property in the western mountains

of Maine and publishes them regularly in local paper’s nature column. She is

also an independent black bear researcher who uses “trust-­‐ based” research to

study the bears that have visited there. Since 2000, she has been exploring

interspecies communication in collaboration with Rupert Sheldrake. She has

Passamaquoddy roots, which may or may not be why she has dedicated her life to speaking out on

behalf of the slaughtered trees, dying plants and disappearing animals. This is the only work that

matters to her.

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