Page 98 - Dark Matter:Women Witnessing Issue #3 - December 2015

Our ritual began with procession of artists wearing handmade masks—deer, bear, wolf, bird—creeping
and stalking down a central aisle to the beat of a

single somber drum. The artists carried a larger-
than-life bear with a bejeweled head, and a body

sewn of tawny fabric. The bear was laid on a

woodsy altar overarched with tall bamboo and
grapevine, and strewn with baskets of flowers,

acorns, shells and blueberries.

Rev. Candace McKibben spoke of the many forms

senseless human violence takes, and the numbness
it can create in our hearts. Many audience members

openly wept. Buddhist practitioner Crystal Wakoa

urged the audience to consider a perspective that
seeks an opening of hearts, even those of hunters and politicians, so they might see themselves anew

and change. The Ursine Chorale, a small a capella group of women, sang a promise to never forget or
forsake the earth’s creatures, reworking a Becky Reardon song for the bears: “The bear cubs

remember/ A dream in September, alone with Mom/ At one with all of the woods/ We honor your spirit./

Forgive us, forgive us.”

We designed the Requiem to help our community

move through grief to a stand of advocacy and
recommitment. Near the close of the ritual, we

invited the audience to take part in a special
communion. From baskets, we chose flowers to

adorn the symbolic bear. We ate blueberries,

sharing the sweet taste of a favorite bear food.
And each of us present selected a bear paw shell,

collected from a local beach, a reminder of our
pledge to stand with the bears.

Susan Cerulean’s most recent
book, Coming to Pass: Florida’s

Coastal Islands in a Gulf of
Change, was published by

University of Georgia Press in
April 2015. You can subscribe

to her blog at
http://www.susancerulean.com