friday reflections – dec 18

I wanted comfort this week and it came to me in the unlikely form of octopuses. Octopi? Whichever. We watched My Octopus Teacher on Netflix on Tuesday and damn.

I didn’t want to watch it. I had resisted Jason’s hopeful suggestions for several weeks because who wants to watch an entire more about an octopus? But it was mesmerizing and not just the octopus but the man in the movie as well. Seeing how his connection to this octopus had healed these other places inside him — it was really lovely.

Watching the documentary reminded me of an essay I read a few years ago so I dug it up to read again. It has the same sort of quality to it, and it’s also about octopuses, just a different form. It’s called Deep Intellect by Sy Montgomery.

I originally read it in the 2013 essay collection Best Spiritual Writing, edited by Philip Zaleski. You can find it here.

Anyow, if you, too, are looking for something calm and soothing and sort of other-worldly, the movie is definitely worth a watch and the essay worth a read. Check them out and let me know what you think.