Some american hunters asked our host, Ginette if they could use a back field on the property to shoot Canadian geese, and in return they would give her a few of them. The geese are migrating right now and it's the only time of the year that people can get licenses to hunt them.
They pulled in at about 9.30am with four geese for us. Ginette came and got me and they showed us how to expose the breasts so the meat can be cut out, and how to marinade and cook it for the best taste.
I asked to be part of this because, as a meat eater I want to learn how to kill and prepare meat. It's something which I know I will find difficult, but the disconnection we have with the meat we eat weighs on my moral sense. The meat industry seems a cold and heartless machine to me, and I would like to work towards a lifestyle where I only eat organic and free-range, or hunted wild meat. So, while at Panorama, I asked Lisa to teach me how to gut a fish. I've done this myself several times now, and goose, it seems, was to be the next step.
Ginette and I were both highly aware of the emotional difficulty of the task, so worked together to quickly and respectfully cut the breast meat from the quickly cooling bodies of the four geese.
Whenever I had to turn one of their bodies, I felt the weight of them in my hands and my heart. Cradling the black-feathered neck of one of the beautiful birds I'd seen flying in formation above me for the last week or so was enough to stab my heart, though I steeled myself to a task I wish we had never removed ourselves from. As my sharp knife cut through the warm red meat beneath the chest feathers of each bird, I tried to be quick, efficient, and not to leave any behind. When we were done, we spread their wings over their chests and Ginette burnt sage smoke over their bodies.
While we were driving to Spruce Woods Provincial park, to hike and collect herbs with Ginette's friend Maria, we stopped along the way to give their bodies back to the earth. We found a place in some wild grass which felt right, and laid out the bodies, one in each of the four directions. Ginette said some words thanking them and sending their spirits on, then played her drum and I felt it so deep in my heart that tears came to my eyes. Then we held hands in a circle around them and each focused on them returning to the earth, being reclaimed by nature, being at peace. We talked about the damage to the earth and our own spirits caused by distance from these things, and the tendency to focus on power and money. Hunters who kill for sport and in excess, without respect. Then Ginette spoke of the pockets of divine energy which were springing up all over the continent, all over the world and the slow spread of openness - whatever you like to call it - respect for nature and the earth perhaps, people like us doing things like this. I said that I hoped some small part of what we were doing here could spread to the geese who were being killed without thanks or respect. We hugged, cried, thanked each other and continued on our way to the park.
For the rest of the day I felt more at one with the earth, more respectful of it, more at peace with myself, more connected to everything. It wasn't butchering the geese, it was the way we treated the process. I think it's because so many of these things we do, emotional things... we rush, we squash our spirit's voice. We are embarrassed by the 'feminine' displays of emotion, the spiritual unease we feel day to day. Because they are small things and we tell ourselves they shouldn't bother us. We should 'man up' perhaps.
But today we took the time to ease our spirits, to let out emotion and be respectful of the lives taken and our own souls. And we were not ashamed or embarrassed, because it is a natural thing. It's just a thing we usually ignore.
So, today was a very good day. A VERY educational day; perhaps even life-changing.
These pictures are from the Spruce Woods Provincial park in Manitoba
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