An Octopus and a Penguin

I fell in love with an octopus last night. I had a kind of tough day and my husband knows just what to do to get me out of a funk. He suggested that we watch a strange, gorgeous, indie film, which he knows, is a surefire way to spark my imagination, and to light a fire in my heart. If you need to renew your faith in the utter beauty and complexity of the world, and yet at the same time, the beautiful simplicity of the creatures in it, watch My Octopus Teacher, which was filmed in the ethereal kelp forest, off the shores of South Africa.

This is a movie that encases the gorgeous cinematography of any Natural Geographic film, yet with feeling and deep attachment for its star creature. Never have I felt more attached to a movie animal since Bambi. My Octopus Teacher is essentially a sea-based Charlotte’s Web. When I took my dogs out this morning, and I gazed at the small lake behind our home, I smiled to myself, realizing all the life which is teeming under the still surface of the lake, filled with individual lives, and sparkling stories of individual creatures. Each life of any one creature, is more interesting and more intricate and more filled with the joy of just being alive, than we could ever imagine. My Octopus Teacher reminds you of this truthful wonder of life.

Another gift of the season, came to me yesterday from a different sea creature. Wellington, the rockhopper penguin (the type of penguin who looks like he has pony tails) was named “Chicagoan of the Year.” Wellington is a 32-year-old penguin who is filled with curiosity. He lives at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Due to COVID, the Shedd Aquarium has been closed to visitors for most of the year, so the animal keepers have allowed Wellington to go on “field trips”, throughout the aquarium, to observe all different types of aquatic creatures. They filmed Wellington’s reactions. (the cute little, curious guy seemed particularly enthralled with the Amazon exhibit) When they shared a couple of these films of Wellington on his field trips, on their website, the videos went viral, and people asked for more and more. I have been one of those people who enjoyed these videos of Wellington from the get-go. I am thrilled with his “award.”

We need wonder right now, don’t we? We need to get lost in the unimaginable beauty of our world, and the creatures in it. We need to forget about the future for a little while, and we need to get totally entranced with the present moment. Most of nature does this quite naturally. Most of the natural world lives better in the flow of nature, and in the peaceful, honest cycles of Life, than we do. Let us never forget that we are but a small part of the unfathomably complex, and yet totally in-sync, natural world. We are part of nature. Let’s be our natural selves, and let’s release ourselves to the wonder of the world, and the natural rhythms and cycles of life. Let’s just flow with it all. I think that we will do so much better in 2021, versus how we handled 2020, if we drop our arrogance and the fallacy that we have any kind of real control. If we take the time to really notice and to consider and to observe just our own one life, and then take the time to really pay attention to all of the incredible varieties of life, bursting all around us, we will be too caught up in wonder and in awe, to be consumed by our petty problems. (And many of these problems are of our own making, if we are going to choose to be painfully honest with ourselves.) An octopus and a penguin brought me peace and wonder and hope yesterday evening. What wonderful natural gifts of the season! May I hold on to these precious gifts, which have always been freely available to me, well into the new year and beyond. If an octopus and a penguin can live joyfully in the moment, accepting Life on Life’s terms, so can I.