Hi Ananda, thinking of you all in Yosemite enacting David's memorial service, and me here in solidarity in Alaska to the north at the intersection of Prince William Sound and the Copper River, two powerful pulse beats of Mother Earth. David's adventures with me in these realms was profound, and so you can be sure that these earth organs are also sending their respect and admiration for David's great spirit at this time.
I particularly remember the summer of 1989, during the Exxon oil spill, when David and I travelled thru Prince William Sound on the magical spirit vessel the Orca II--which David had been instrumental in helping bring into my life. Knight Island, the heart of the Sound, had opened its fjord arms to the flowing oil, and indeed more oil covered the shores of Knight Island than any other place.
In the spring, about a week after the spill began, I had been imagining the oil as some monster out there killing everything in the darkness--whale and otter, eagle and loon. But suddenly I had a revelation: what if the oil was as frightened as we were? Black blood of the Mother, drilled up out of its home deep in the earth and spilled onto a cold ocean, and where did it go? Straight into the open arms of the Heart of the place. That spring, when the oil was a foot thick on the beaches of Knight Island, you didn't know if you were walking over rocks or dead birds.
Late that summer, after David and I and others made a pilgrimage to Knight Island on the Orca II, David had a dream. In the dream he was rising up through a mist above the beautiful island, and the mist was the spirits of all the animals that had died. They said to David, "It's true, we haven't left yet because we have a message to deliver. And the message is love."
The oil spill happened on Good Friday, a traditional day of sacrifice. And after sacrifice comes resurrection. What truer way to remember David and his past and present and future incarnations: the message is love.
-- David Lynn Grimes
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