The Ultimate Teacher of Patience - The Great Blue Heron, our neighbour

"Patience is my name"

Some years ago a pair of bald eagles decimated the Great Blue Heron colony in Beacon Hill Park here in James Bay, Victoria, BC.  They did it ‘Rambo’-style. So we missed those tide pool fishers, but they’re back. Great Blue Heron nests are placed high up in the trees, but ashore they appear to stand forever in the shallows, or on a rock, awaiting their meal to show up. 

The shoreline here is strewn with driftwood and logs after winter storms. One section has a quiet, pebbled beach and nearby is a bit of sandy beach, very small. That’s where visitors spend time with children or dogs, with the odd person brave enough to dip into the cold waters. The herons are far from this crowded beach.   

These prehistoric creatures stand like statues or mime performers a la Marcel Marceau. An octogenarian with time galore, this morning I decided to go and watch once again these long-beaked fishers at our shore. Years ago, we were fortunate to have a teacher who taught patience.  So now I intended to put my patience to the test.  Settling quietly on a log, I waited together with the herons. There were two, some 15 metres apart.  Standing like sentinels with alert eyes, beaks down, gazing into the tide pool, ready to catch a fish. 

Breakfast for me and my chicks

You could see, ever so slightly, a tiny movement of the beak, while their legs stayed still.  A picture of rapt attention. Over two hours, their catch was 4 fish.   

 Off home, that's it for this morning

Then the winged master of patience took flight, direction Beacon Hill Park. Thought we’d share this experience. Unlike we humans who let millions of children go hungry or perish, Great Blue Herons ensure their young do not go hungry - such is their instinct and timeless survival ritual, helped by a tremendous dose of patience.

Henri van Bentum

postscript to earlier post on "Feria del Barrilete Gigante", Guatemala

Several people got in touch after our recent post June 9 about the "Feria del Barrilete Gigante" in Sumpango and Santiago Sacatepequez, Guatemala. Each year on All Saints Day enormous, colourful and spherical kites made from tissue paper take to the skies.  People asked, "What happens to the kites afterwards?".  After the kites have delivered their messages to the ancestors and cleansed the air of negative spirits, they return to Earth.  Villagers gather the surviving kites together for the final chapter in this November 1st "Dia de los Muertos" Day of the Dead ceremony.  Then the surviving kites are burned and their ashes are scattered in the cemetery on the tombs and graves of the departed, thus coming 'full circle'.  

Henri van Bentum

"Ode to a Beetle" - A Rap

This is a song

about a noble beetle

Not by the Beatles

but those that roll dung

And that is not all

they roll it upward on a hill or plain

pushing the dung with hind legs

while on their endurance journey

 

Creating a perfect, round ball

shaped like the moon and sun

Revered in ancient Egypt

they were divine

because they pushed those balls of dung

in a very straight line

guided by forces

of Moon and Sun

No way, you say?

well, now we even know

they’re also in touch with the Milky Way

 

Did the ancient Pharaohs know

we would be doing this rap

on the dung beetle

their sacred scarab?

Henri van Bentum

Giant "Mandala" Kites of Guatemala, FERIA DEL BARRILETE GIGANTE, created from tissue paper

During our recent stopover in Guatemala we visited Antigua, the UNESCO World Heritage city. We were introduced to a cultural representative of Mayan descent. Our guide told her I am an artist, so when we asked for suggestions of interesting cultural experiences (other than Lake Atitlan, the Mayan pyramids and the ancient city of Antigua), right away she mentioned the “Feria del Barrilete Gigante”.

“It takes place some 15 kilometres north of Antigua, in Sumpango and in Santiago Sacatepequez every November 1. (In the Western tradition, All Saints Day, in Central America, it is the Dia de los Meurtos or Day of the Dead. 

People of Santiago Sacatepequez at tombs of loved ones

It’s a unique event where you see very colourful, spherical kites.  A special way of remembering loved ones who have gone, and ancestors.  Months of work go into the creation of the kites, constructed from vibrantly-coloured tissue paper and glued onto bamboo rods. Some of the kites are 3-4 metres in diameter.   

Segment of kite made from tissue paper - a "Mayan Kandinsky"

The images have a spiritual meaning with messages the villagers send to the departed ones. It’s taken very seriously and although most are adults, some even cry when their kite tumbles down, failing to deliver its message.”

It takes a whole village to build these kites. Men travel to the south coast of Guatemala to collect canes for spars; wire and rope hold the kites together. Groups of Sumpango and Santiago Sacatepequez residents collaborate to make each kite. 

"The standard-size 3 metre in diameter kite takes up to 15 people months to design, create, and assemble, depending on how complicated the design is.

Segment of a 'spirit kite', another example of how these Mayan creations evoke the work of Kandinsky

The kites serve as a means to communicate with the spirit of the deceased, while at the same time also operating as a filter – removing any bad vibes that might exist in the cemeteries and in the sky.”  Houston Museum of Natural Science  

Upwards to visit the spirits of the ancestors

While families gather amongst the tombstones of their loved ones, high above the cemeteries, dashing through the sky, are the gigantic kites with their messages in vibrant colours.

Henri van Bentum

Floating Art Class at Sea - Sunsets Theme

We don’t mention names of the passengers in our floating art class at sea to maintain privacy.  But experiences can be shared without using names. Our sessions on "Colour and Its Magic" have Themes. One theme is “Sunsets”.   

One artist's interpretation of a sunset

Where better than at sea can you witness sunsets?  However the classes are in the mid-morning, so what to do?  “Just use the primary and secondary colours you see at sunset and away you go”, we tell the students. “Yes, you may use green for those rare occasions of a green flash."  At first this seems like an impossible task for those who need to see in front of them what they are about to paint. After all, it’s not only daytime but has to be done on a blank paper or canvas.  So it requires 100% imagination. 

 Here is another artist's interpretation of a sunset

I remember many years ago when convalescing during a lengthy illness in a sanatorium in Holland (where I began my career in art), doctors, nurses, and other patients asked, “Why don’t you paint a sunset?”. My reply was, “They go too quickly”.  They still do. The results of using the palette of the sun’s departure will always be different moment to moment because each sunset is, and will be, different. 

Years later, when I was released and worked “en plein air”, my father asked the same question, and my answer was the same. 

Back to our our floating art class at sea, with 10-30 students, each of the results for this Theme are different.  Of course there will always be someone who wants something else as a Theme. I remember one woman telling me, “I feel like doing something else. This theme of sunsets does not light my fire.” So we asked, “What then would you wish to paint today?” “Landscapes”, she replied. “Well, I am sorry”, I said, “but you are in the wrong place.  We are at sea.” So you understand what I meant about anecdotes and privacy. You can still tell them without revealing a name.

Henri van Bentum