Last month Phoebe Zerwick and I traveled to New Orleans for the closing chapter of our Sacred Rivers project. For the past five years we have been traveling to different U.S. rivers to tell a story of ritual, celebration and awareness of rivers that are central to not only our water sources, but a deeper voice that lives inside all of us. The connection we all have to rivers is not always connected to a prayer or a specific religion, but it is a connection to what we feel is sacred; a tradition, a belief, a re-dedication, a celebration of birth, and of death.
So our last chapter found us in the midst of the St Anne's Krewe on Mardi Gras day. In a swirl of glitter and ribbons, feathers and fur, in shades of pink, purple, silver and gold. We marched with a happy tribe of hundreds from New Orleans and other far parts of the country, as they danced, sang, drank and partied their way to the Mississippi to release their grief as they tossed the ashes of loved ones that passed away the prior year. It was an amazing day and a perfect way to find the last page of our story.
