Wind Watchers: A Reflection on Horseshoe Crabs in the Indian River Lagoon
The Atlantic Horseshoe Crab is a unique species that calls the entire east coast of the USA home. Since 2016, it has been labelled as a Vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). A Rocha USA is working towards the protection of these animals and is studying their unique spawning behaviours in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon, one of the largest estuaries in the United States. This video is a reflection on these creatures and the beauty in how they praise God through their creatureliness. The video was directed by A Rocha USA intern Michaela Stenerson, with written and spoken poetry by Allison Cutting.
Poem / transcript written by Allison Cutting:
Sitting amongst dead crabs,
Dust you are from, to dust you will return.
Knowing this, live anyway. Exist fully anyway.
Not with hopelessness of the inevitable. But be present fully now, with the job and task at hand, asked of you, because of the inevitable. This is being a creature. This is creatureliness.
Life death life cycles.
From dust to dust.
Ecosystems. Timing. Patience. Trust.
The crabs do not rush the season of spawning. Their actions align with the ways of the wind.
The conditions and context of their surroundings – the place in which they inhabit – this is what guides them.
It is not passive. It is responsive – connected to place, time, rhythms. In relationship with water, wind, earth. Instinctual knowing.
Their fate is unclear.
Their venture, undetermined.
Those that die, give back to their place.
Birds and insects feast on this seasonal food while
Bacteria and sun decompose telson and carapace
Soil and mangrove receive nutrients at the proper time.
A return to dust.
A provision to the place that held them and will hold their young.
The dust and sand in which Horseshoe Crab eggs were laid, burst forth with new life.
For everything there is a season, a time for every matter.
A time to be born and a time to die.
Life death life cycles.
From dust to dust.
Ecosystems. Timing. Patience. Trust.
And it is good.
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