A Day with Dolphins
What is everybody seeking? JOY!
Joy is what wild dolphins emanate. Joy is what we feel when we are in their presence. Imagine approaching a pod of Spinner dolphins who are leaping out of the water, spinning and leaping again and again. As we approach respectfully and lovingly in our boat, the dolphins continue their celebration of life. The love and joy they embody is contagious. We relax into the delight of the beauty of the ocean world we have entered. The warmth of the sun on our bodies, and it’s sparkle as it dances across gentle waves on the surface of the water.
We approach them so that they are well aware of our presence. We stay a respectful distance, and watch, and allow our energy to shift to something more like their joyous vibration. We call them with our hearts and voices. We send our love to them, and they respond. Perhaps we sing to them. The dolphins approach us. They are curious and sociable—especially the young ones. They are intelligent and highly psychically aware. They are friendly, and willing to share their love and enjoyment of life with us. They intuitively know that we need the kind of healing that being with them can give us.
We slip into the water with our snorkel gear on. The water is clear blue and warm. It envelopes us like a womb. We have entered another world. We begin to swim gracefully, forgetting all cares and thoughts of the world on shore. We swim quietly, not wanting to invade the dolphins’ space. We are excited and happy to just be near the pod.
The dolphins approach us. We can hear their clicks and squeaks, and feel the subtle vibration of their sonar. It’s so awesome to be in the water with these friendly creatures, who are so generous with their “Aloha” spirit. They swim up to us and check us out. They circle away, and then return, this time coming closer. We get used to each other, and begin to talk to each other. We feel ourselves tuning into the “pod mind.”
A dolphin approaches me so closely I could reach out and touch it, but out of respect, I don’t. We swim along, eye to eye, as friends. My heart is bursting with love and gratitude. More dolphins keep swimming up to me from behind, swimming right next to me. It seems surprising that they want to be so close. It’s their choice, and they chose to come back to us again and again.
The pod is having play time. They swim lazily in large circles. A dolphin “keiki” (Hawai`ian for child) bursts through the surface of the water high into the air, spinning… how many times? Two, three, four, before she re-enters the water. Our hearts begin to expand with joy. Pure joy. We remember that we used to live in that joy all the time. Another younger one, leaps out of the water and only makes it about 2 feet up before doing a belly flop. I encourage her, “Come on sweetheart, do it again.” And she does, leaping higher this time.
Larger dolphins are leaping and spinning too. Adults, and adolescents. We can hear their incessant conversation underwater. They squeak and talk to each other non-stop. We wish we could understand what they are saying. Our presence does not disturb their conversations, or their fun. As they swim together they often touch each other. They display so much love for each other. We watch their interaction with each other. It is delightful–full of trust, grace, ease, love, and happiness. We remember that we used to be like that. We begin to relax into that state.
A keiki wants to make friends. She approaches us and squeaks. I think, “I’ll show her what I can do.” I swim down a few feet, and then with all my power swim up through the surface, making an awkward attempt to spin as I break the surface. The keiki gets the idea. She thinks to herself, (or so I think), “I’ll show that human how it’s done.” She swims down, then fast up to the surface, leaping 10 feet out of the water, spinning about 4 times before she re-enters the water. I laugh. Then another keiki joins the game. Their moms hang out watching, knowing we are not a threat to their children, knowing perhaps that by our developing a bond with them, we will develop a sense of responsibility towards them to do what we can to protect them from human created dangers.
We notice two larger dolphins who are not part of the pod of Spinners. They are a Bottlenose dolphin pair. They are very friendly, and funny. They approach us closely to say “hello” and check us out, then continue with their cavorting. They act like intoxicated lovers–constantly touching each other as they swim, rolling around together. And as happy as they are with each other, our presence does not seem to disturb or change their behaviour. We conclude that dolphins are not modest, and the word “embarrassment” is not in their vocabulary.
We get to know the Spinner pod. There are adult males, females, adolescents, and keikis. There are distinguishing marks on some which make them easily recognizable. We shift out of our normal everyday state of mind, into a more pure, clear, almost childlike state. We realize that joy, love, and clarity is the essence of who and what we are. We realize that the dolphins, who have never forgotten that, have taught us an incredibly important lesson. And they have done it by just being themselves, and allowing us to hang out with them. Our hearts are overflowing with love and gratitude. They have reconnected us with an essence deep inside ourselves, an essence which we often don’t feel as much as we’d like to during our everyday life.
We spend half a day with the dolphins. We climb onto the boat when we need to rest, warm up in the sun, eat a bit, sit and meditate, or talk and integrate our experiences. One of our group brought a flute, and is playing beautiful flute music. The dolphins come close to listen. Another of our members accompanies with a Tibetan bowl. Our cetacean friends enjoy beautiful human music. We sing and tone for them. We feel so happy by this inter-species sharing. They give so much to us. We want to give back to them what we can.
When our time is up we reluctantly leave our dolphin friends. We are happy knowing we can return. Just like with any person we love, we just think of that person, and on some level they are there with us—filling us with love and inspiration. We realize that energetically the dolphins are with us always. We have created a connection that will always be there. They are our friends, our teachers. Their uncluttered minds are clear and bright, aware and deep. We realize that being with them has changed us. We are not exactly who we were before we spent time with them.
How are we going to integrate what we have experienced into our “normal” lives? Dolphin Essence facilitator, John has developed a format to help us stabilize this frequency of joy and love into our bodies, minds, and spirit. We look forward to the group processes where we will do that.