The Last Straw

Lori's studio

Mindful

Every day
I see or hear
something
that more or less

kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle

in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for -
to look, to listen,

to lose myself
inside this soft world -
to instruct myself
over and over

in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant –
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help

but grow wise
with such teachings
as these -
the untrimmable light

of the world,
the ocean’s shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?

~ Mary Oliver ~

My friend Lori Kerr died on Wednesday.  I was lucky enough to have had a studio next to Lori’s for the past two years.  Our friendship was about our art, which if you think about it, which I don’t think we did, is about life.  It usually took me until mid-afternoon to get to my studio and Lori was always there working thinking working making.

After I had been in the studio for a month or so, Lori arrived one day, with an oxgen canister attached to her nose.  She told me, “I am not getting quite enough oxygen, the Doctor said.”  Lori did not miss a beat.  For the rest of the time I knew her, she used oxygen.  When she came into my studio, she attached herself to a long plastic cord which went to the oxygen  tank in her studio.   Our lives there were about making art which we encouraged each other about daily.  With Lori, I did not think about that long plastic cord, I thought about animals and materials and ideas and just life.  Lori was one of the most creative people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.  She was a wonderful and loving mother to her children,  and a good wife as well.  She was an excellent friend.  One day she asked me to go on an ” Urban Chicken” tour.  I did not get to go, but I know her friends that did had a fabulous time.  The thing is, Lori was so busy living, loving and creating that I did not think she had time to die.  On Wednesday, March 3, 2010, Lori Kerr decided to take herself off the ventilator that was  keeping her alive.  I am deeply saddened by her death.  More than that, I am grateful for my time with her, her eye for animals, her creative mind, her living of each moment with curiosity and joy, her love for all of us humans and animals in this world.  Thank you Lori for living so well.  Your friends, your family, the lizards, the hedgehogs, the crows, the rabbits, the chickens, all of us–we love you and we miss you.  You are shining star.

Some of Lori's work in her studio. One of my crows stands guard.