Three Cheers For the Octopus

You may have already seen it, but if you haven’t, give yourself the gift of watching My Octopus Teacher. It has won many awards, including the 2021 Oscar for best documentary and the awards are well deserved. I have watched it twice and am looking forward to watching it again because it is mesmerizing and inspiring. Everybody I have shared it with has watched it more than once. Here is a link to the official trailer if you are interested: CLICK HERE.  

It is the story of Craig Foster and his astounding relationship with an octopus in the kelp forests at the tip of South Africa. Craig narrates the documentary, and I was deeply moved by what he said, and that he was willing to be so real about how this relationship with an octopus and her world changed him forever. 

Why is this film so beloved by so many people? Yes, the photography is amazing, and the music is moving. But the message is even more astounding. An octopus only lives about a year and for 80% of her life Craig went every day. People asked him why he was going to the same place day in and day out and he said, “But that is when you see the subtle differences. That’s when you get to know the wild.”  

As he watched her, he was stunned by her intelligence and ability to learn and remember details.  Slowly, it hit him how much she was teaching him. He said he couldn’t wait to get up in the morning because there was so much to do…to understand her world – every tiny mark, every little behavior, every species and what they are doing, how they are interacting.  

Through his fascinated attention he began to see this world he entered everyday as a whole. He said, “It’s almost like the forest mind. You really could feel it, that big creature and it was thousands of times more awake and intelligent than I am. It’s like a giant, intelligent underwater brain operating over millions of years. And it just keeps everything in balance.” 

When he said it, I kept on rewinding the movie because those words and the images that came with them invited me into a deeper connection with my life. I sit with my pond most every night and this movie has allowed me to more deeply realize that everything in that environment is full of intelligence and is deeply interconnected. In these moments I am not sitting in an environment made up of objects called trees, grass, rocks, birds, cat, fish and squirrels. Rather, I am sitting with the vibrant intelligence of life, and I get glimpses of the constant and usually subtle communications of nature. Even the atoms that make up the rocks are filled with intelligence! When I open at this level to life, it brings tears of joy. Life is brailling me out of separation and back into a unified connection with life. 

At the end of the documentary, he became very vulnerable and real about how this relationship touched him. He then touched me to my core when he said, “You get in touch with this wild place, and it is speaking to you. Its language is visible. I fell in love with her but also that amazing wildness that she represented and that changed me. What she taught me is to feel that you are a part of this place, not a visitor and that is a huge difference.”  

He realized he was at one with all life. In return he is reminding us that we are all a part of a greater whole, a whole that is astounding in its intelligence. 

We are like sleeping beauty where, rather than being asleep to what is really going on here, we are being, “kissed awake!” May each of us in our own way come to know we are an essential and integral part of a greater process where intelligence permeates every breath we breathe, every particle of sunlight we are bathed in, every morsel of food we eat, every sip of water we drink. Let this documentary deepen your realization that all things are bound together in an integrated whole and that includes you.  

There is so much more I want to say about what this movie evokes in me. But I will contain myself so you can discover your particular treasures in this movie.   

May this beautiful octopus take you another step into waking up to the intelligence and wonder of it all.