Open Hearts, Open Minds #6: Of Herons and Hearts

So already, in my last blog, when I talked about the power of the "entrances" of phenomena that jolt us into consciousness, I mentioned the appearance of a blue heron as an example of a natural phenomenon that might catapult us into a state of elation.

I write with a heron update today. Mid-day on Wednesday, though I had lots of Thanksgiving cooking to do, I took one of my usual marsh walks because it was one of those gray days that intensifies the marsh's November goldness. 

When I came out of one of the Merrymount Park's wooded trails, I immediately saw a blue heron tucked in close to the grasses on the opposite side of Black's Creek. He was having a pretty good fishing day.

More remarkably, he didn't seem to notice me at all and to take sudden, immediate flight: in my experience, herons are much more apt to move on when they sense a human presence than egrets are. 

I'd almost not taken my "real camera" with me, and then I'd reminded myself that you just never know what you're going to see, even when you walk the same walk multiple times a week. Realizing the heron seemed to be taking my presence in stride, I walked forward, taking my chances. No problem, it seemed; we were good with each other. Maybe he'd seen me around on days I hadn't seen him. I got a few really close shots of him and walked on; he just kept fishing.

A chance encounter? I don't know. But I tend to think not. 

As I've been thinking about the "serendipity" of Wednesday's meeting, I've thought of others' encounters with animals in nature on television and on film.

I think of Sister Monica Joan's encounter with the white stag in the 2019 Call the Midwife holiday special. One blogger captures the intensity with which the sister, resourceful as well as aging, plots and acts to encounter the white stag:

In Call the Midwife, the midwives travel to the Outer Hebrides Islands.  Sister Monica Joan, the aging mystic, wants to go along but is left at home.  She sneaks away from London and joins her sisters on the island where, pressing her hand to a standing stone, she sees a white stag and believes she’s had a vision of The Lord.  It’s glorious and I can’t imagine too many Pagans who watched the scene weren’t aware of exactly what was going on.*

The blogger doesn't believe Sister Monica Joan (my quasi-namesake, who's played by Judy Parfitt) saw "The Lord," but she and I would both agree that Sister Monica saw the white stag, and it was a peak experience for her, both joyful and settling. 

I also think of the encounter of Queen Elizabeth (played by Helen Mirren**) with the stag near Balmoral Castle soon after the death of the Princess Diana in the movie The Queen. As an NPR story explained,

The weight of recent events — the violent death of Princess Diana; pressure from Tony Blair and her own son to address the nation; an extremely hostile press — actually cause the stoic empress to break down in tears. Suddenly, a gorgeous, imposing imperial stag appears on a nearby hill. 

And for a few seconds, Mirren's face changes completely, showing, by turns, wonder, joy, recognition and fear at the animal's beauty. It's a stark contrast to the seemingly stone-faced woman we see throughout the film.***

My Black's Creek encounter wasn't as defining or transforming as Judy Parfitt's and Helen Mirren's characters' experiences were. Still, as Wordsworth might have put it, my heart leapt up.**** The heart does open.

* HecateDemeter. (2020, January 15). Must Be the Season of the Witch. hecatedemeter. https://hecatedemeter.wordpress.com/2020/01/14/must-be-the-season-of-the-witch/. Screenshot of photo in that blog.

*** Photo of Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth: https://cdn.theculturetrip.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/screenshot-02.jpg 

*** Blair, E. (2007, February 23). Glimpsing a Queen's Soul: 'The Stag Scene'. NPR. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7577583. 

**** "My Heart Leaps Up" by William Wordsworth: https://poets.org/poem/my-heart-leaps