“’Okay, I trust you. I trust you, human, and now you can come into my octopus world.’ And she’s moving towards me and my natural instinct to gently back away. And then I just wanted to keep still, so I held onto a rock. She just kept coming and then covered my whole hand. I’d been underwater for quite a long time, so I just gently pushed for the surface, thinking she would move off my hand. But she didn’t. She just rode my hand right to the surface. There I was, just staring into the eyes of this incredible creature.”
My Octopus Teacher (2020)
I sit with my grief. I mother it. I hold its small, hot hand. I don’t say, shhh. I don’t say, it's okay. I wait until it is done having feelings. Then we stand and we go wash the dishes.