Murmuration | Lisa Cooper Ellison
The starlings explode from a nearby tree then dance overhead in a synchronized tangle of chatter and wings. Later that day, I tell my mentor and share a new word: murmuration. It’s his second week of chemo treatment for a second cancer. He’s paying attention to nature and its signs, which makes me pay attention too. We find hope in snapped twigs, grazing deer, and a sunrise refracting off a crystal vase. Past losses have taught us that life is like those birds pirouetting across the sky—art in motion that flies off too soon.
About the Author:
Lisa Cooper Ellison is an author, speaker, and trauma-informed writing coach, as well as the host of the Writing Your Resilience podcast. She works and writes at the intersection of storytelling and healing. Her essays and stories have appeared on Risk! and in The New York Times, HuffPost, and Kenyon Review Online, among others. Lisa recently finished her memoir, Please Stage Dive Carefully, How I Survived My Brother’s Suicide and Forgave Myself.