Diary of a Wild Heart–Part Two

With my wild heart open and singing, I carefully stepped on ancient coral-rock pieces hearing them clink, clink as my weight shifted from one foot to the other. The towering turquoise waves brought out my own inner power and I felt myself expanding. But as I looked down at the beach, evidence of human consumerism was everywhere.

The open water between Venezuela and Bonaire is very rough and the south end of the island is the repository for endless man-made trash the Ocean regurgitates in an effort to cleanse Itself. I saw part of the worst of humanity scattered haphazardly among the rocks. Shoes by the hundreds, plastic bottles, plastic cases, plastic ground into small bits by the waves and rocks…a plastic virus covered the beach for as far as I could see.

Anger reared up from deep within, from that dark place in my gut and hot lava-like fury erupted as I spewed epitaphs to my species. And then….ever so slowly….I stilled my mind and let my emotions ebb. I looked out over the Caribbean water and listened for an answer to my question: What can I do?

Very softly, like a whisper riding the wind, I heard, “To help me you must develop compassion for humans.”

Yeah, right I thought as I looked around at tins leaking unknown toxins onto the earth. Look at what we do to this planet! How can I possibly feel compassion for this kind of behavior? 

Patiently, yet wildly with waves and spray leaping over twenty feet into the air, I heard, “You must develop patience for humans if you want to make a positive difference.” As the message filtered through the language center of my brain I recognized the challenge of simply listening to the message coming to me….whether it really was from the Ocean or Earth or my subconscious was making it up, it really didn’t matter. As they say, Fantasy is the ark that carries the ass.

“Really?” I said out loud. The words blew back at me with a gust of salty wind. Coated with Her salty

essence, I took to heart the message. As I continued to still my mind I heard that compassion comes from understanding the ignorance of humans. Sidetracked by our own intoxication of power we, as a species, disconnect from our true, wild essence to conquer everything around us. In so doing we destroy not only the earth and all resources but ourselves as well UNLESS we can open ourselves, our hearts, to the elements, the wildness around and within ourselves.