Amplify Our Voices

Lessons from Birds & Georgia O'Keeffe

Every voice speaking up for our Democracy matters more than ever before. How can the chirping of one American Robin multiply, grow in volume, and become so urgent that everyone stops and looks at the bird and realizes —all we love is at stake?

Artist Georgia O’Keeffe knew how to turn our attention to flowers:

“So I said to myself—I’ll paint what I see—what the flower is to me but I’ll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it—I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers.” - Georgia O'Keeffe⁠

Georgia O'Keeffe. Abstraction White Rose, 1927. Oil on canvas, 36 x 30 inches. Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.

My climate activist friend Amy Cilimburg got me to think about amplifying what we care about a couple weeks ago as we stood in front of her straw bale home with solar panels on the roof . She was reading Ayana Elizabeth Johnson’s book, What if We Get it Right? Visions of Climate Futures. She told me about Ayana’s message of going beyond doing the right thing personally for the planet to sharing and inspiring others—from neighbors to community to the nation. Soon after, Amy followed through and wrote her Missoula Climate Connections column: The Sun Can Shine in 2025.

I feel the sun shining through in dark times—a reminder that we have power. We will not abandon our hopes and dreams. We will put our visions forward no matter what. We will resist and persist. After my last substack piece “I Care Deeply” (inspired by Heather Cox Richardson) resonated, I’m taking extra steps to reach more people.

When I wrote “A Reverence of Crows,A Tree’s Last Stand” as a blog, another version now appears in our local weekly paper in Bend, “The Source.” I learned about hundreds of crows coming to roost in a dying tree and a new meaning of the word “reverence.” I wrote of city birds and trees as portals to the wild places that desperately need our help now —with an all out assault on our environmental laws, on science, and federal employees charged with conserving our public lands and wildlife. And I held up a piece of activism to inspire others —The Green Ribbon Protest.

What if we could be like a flock of a hundred robins calling from treetops, flying overhead, and lifting up from the ground? Or the spring dawn chorus that is a symphony of diversity, all chiming in as if powering the sun?

photo of American Robins in a snowstorm finding refuge with each other, by Marina Richie

Birds have much to teach us about amplifying our voices and the adage, “there’s safety in numbers.” Have you ever noticed how quiet it can be in the woods and then whoosh…in comes a feathery fluster of songbirds? In winter, the mixed busy group might be chickadees, kinglets, titmice (east coast), creepers, nuthatches, and woodpeckers. Together, they are safer from predatory birds like Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned Hawks. Chickadees give alarm calls that ripple through the flock and give advance warning to fly away.

Beyond finding safety, the birds are cooperating to find prime trees for insects, and divvying up who eats what and where to avoid competing with one another. Woodpeckers, nuthatches, and creepers all focus on the the trunks and branches for insects, while others glean leaves and needles. Each species has an adaptation for their way of living—like the strong bills of woodpeckers for excavating.

Every one of us has a special skill, tool, and gifts to share. This is the time to unleash creativity, passion, kindness, and love—to be like birds in a flock that are safer together and stronger for their diversity and common purpose. This is the time for us to bloom even in winter and to be flamboyant and bold.

“It's not enough to be nice in life. You've got to have nerve.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

Bitterroot wildflower (June in Montana), by Marina Richie