I found a bright orange, spindly Pacific Blood Sea Star in the high drift at Crescent Bay recently.

Though sea stars are uniquely designed intertidal creatures able to endure both pounding surf and periods out of water between the low and high tide marks, they still do best in tide pools or clinging to damp seaweeded rocks. They are not meant to bake in the sun on the sand. This one must have died at sea and simply coasted to shore on a raft of kelp.

I’m surprised a gull hasn’t nabbed it for breakfast—it would surely stand out from any low cruising altitude. (Unless, of course, gulls are color blind?) I hate to see it go to waste, but I’m glad I got to see it, even dead. Every starfish I meet is resonant of my first primal beach experience, fitting my six-year-old hand to a purple star gripping a rock on Cannon Beach in Oregon. From that day forward, I’ve thought of my hands as sea stars, though sun dried and bleached.

I feel such tenderness for this lifeless creature—perhaps I am hard-wired to respond to all five-pointed beings and see in them early blueprints of myself. The heart of splayed Leonardo Man could easily have been a resonant sea star. This frail being inspires such compassion in me—I want to hold it, to revive it. It looks so forlorn and exhausted. I wish it could tell me of its adventures in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. I want to know what it’s like to feel the tide rinse you clean four times a day. I want to know how it feels to float fearlessly on a wave.

In fact, I’ve been haunted by the image of this star, so much that I decided to make a memorial to it in my home. I headed over to the one emporium I figured might have a suitable replica—and found myself a beautiful glass sea star in exactly the right color on ebay. Resting on a piece of driftwood, surrounded by a circle of red jasper and dried seaweed, my new sea star will live the rest of my life at least, and the original will live in my heart forever. This altar reminds me daily of the beauty—and the fragility of life.

While I'd prefer the sea star who inspired this to be alive, this preserves her in my memory. Click to enlarge

CONTEMPLATIONS

• How do you react when you come across dead beings?
• Have you ever connected with the spirit of one?
• What kinds of creatures resonate the most with you?
• How do you express compassion?

Meet another five-pointed animal here.