Confirmed by Birds
“I pray to the birds. I pray to the birds because I believe they will carry the messages of my heart upward. I pray to them because I believe in their existence, the way their songs begin and end each day—the invocations and benedictions of Earth. … And at the end of my prayers, they teach me how to listen.”
Terry Tempest Williams
The book Earth Calling by Ellen Gunter and Ted Carter was instrumental in bringing this blog into existence. It all began mundanely enough. The three of us are in a book club of six unique women, all of whom are creative, caring, and committed to bettering the world. Wendy was the one who chose the book for our April read. During our lively book club discussion, it soon became obvious that she, Kathy, and I were fired up by what the book had taught and the challenges it offered. We wanted to DO SOMETHING, the three of us. Meetings followed with much talk of possible actions, and finally a retreat in the summer of 2018 to the mountains of North Carolina.
On a warm Friday in July, in Kathy’s reliable CRV, we drove from Charlotte to her neighbor’s mountain cabin. The cabin had been converted from a barn to a unique and open home and is nestled between Tester Mountain and the Watauga River. A field unspools its lush flora from the house to the river on which the deer come to graze in the evenings and early mornings.
Two of us are writers and one is a photographer. Kathy is trained in shamanism. Given the interests, skills, and talents among us, we wanted to find a way to use them to encourage others to strengthen their connection with the natural world, its creatures and rhythms. We’d originally considered making a book, but soon ditched the idea because of the amount of work, cost and the small reach. By the time of the retreat, we had settled on using the Internet as our tool of choice for what we might do. Blogging made sense because entry is simple and low-cost and the potential of reach is wide.
On Saturday evening, after an afternoon of brainstorming and planning, we had developed a cohesive idea of the purpose of the blog and how we might execute it. We agreed that we wanted it to reflect our own journeys in re-remembering our origins and renewing our relationship with the earth. Ceremonies would be included too, as they had already become a part of our journeys, both individually and together.
But coming up with a name for our newly conceived blog was proving to be more of a challenge than we expected. Our high enthusiasm and excitement over the names we brainstormed were soon punctured when we searched the web. Each possible name had already been taken. Our energy dropped. A change of scene was necessary, so we decided to take a short walk across the field to the river. As we headed out the door, we commented among ourselves that Nature herself might offer us an answer.
On the walk, we began throwing out ideas again, the most common beginning with the word, “green.” One of us commented on how expected it was to use that word when referring to something earth-related, and another of us said that it could be a good thing. Then someone said, isn’t there more of the color blue on the earth than green? And I mentioned a song that was sometimes sung at my church, a song titled, Blue Boat Home. I only remembered part of the refrain: “And the earth is my blue boat home.”
We started playing with the words and soon “our blue boat” was bantered about, tested on our tongues. We didn’t have a full consensus on the name, but it was a contender. By this time, we were at the river, and Kathy and I soon had shoes and socks off and our feet in the cooling waters. Wendy, as usual, took photos. Just then, across the narrow river, we spotted two bluebirds flying among the branches of an oak bending over the water.
“Look!” I said. “Two bluebirds! It’s a sign for the name.” I was half-joking, but that was all Kathy and I needed.
Wendy was more circumspect. “But it’s only two bluebirds. Shouldn’t there be three?”
A few seconds later, a third bluebird joined the other two.
“There you go, Wendy!” We whooped and then burst out laughing. Soon after, Kathy pointed out to us three goldfinches flitting over the Watauga, from tree to tree. “And there are our confirming goldfinches!” Wendy announced.
Nature had spoken. We listened. Our Blue Boat was born.
