Tag: wildlife
Reflections on Whales–Part III

Reflections on Whales–Part III

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February 21

Rough, gray sky, chilly day. Yoga under the stars was challenging with the boat rocking so much. The whales were out frolicking elsewhere for the most part. Not many were seen in our little corner of the Silver Bank.

But late in the day, after almost eight hours on the water in the small boat, a mother and calf gifted us with a very short but incredibly SWEET encounter. I entered the water and swam up to the guide. The viz wasn’t good but mom was horizontal and baby hanging tail-down/nose-up in the water column. Two fish were playing at the baby’s nose.

(For video…click the file)

Slowly, ever-so-slowly, the calf began to rise up. She swam toward me (although Karen might say she swam toward her) and made eye contact. WHEW! That’s the candy!

I glanced down as baby breathed at the surface and mom was rising up beneath us. She also made eye contact with her magnificent, huge eye and watched each of us floating in complete and total awe. Her pectoral fin passed within a few feet of us as she turned.

One encounter like that can make eight hours of rough water and cold-endurance worth it. SO WORTH IT!

 

 
Reflecting on Whales–Part II

Reflecting on Whales–Part II

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Feb 20

Yoga under stars and half moon. Calm seas. Message received during yoga: Navigate by the stars….and even when I can’t see them doesn’t mean they are not there. 

Today’s whale encounters were centered around a male and female whale in their dreaming/resting state. I was able to drop into meditation with the female and felt my mind expand. I saw the Universe through her mind and floated, suspended in awe.

When I looked into her eye I felt a strong connection to her mind, like I could see constellations of the sky. It was as if the Universe was contained within it. Last year I came away from my humpback whale encounters suspecting they spend their time dreaming and connecting with the Universe while in the warm, tropical waters of the Dominican Republic rather than simply sleeping. This experience strengthened that idea. I could feel her connection with the Cosmic Mind, Universal Consciousness.

As I ‘saw’ this in the whale, I asked to be shown directly and opened my mind to her mind. It’s challenging to explain my experience in words so I’ll summarize with this: When I felt completely filled with Universal Consciousness, there was a huge rush of emotional energy that moved throughout my body and out through the top of my head. We had been still and quiet together until I felt the rush of energy explode like a fountain from my head…in that exact moment she twitched, gave a final look at me and then ascended to breathe. It felt as if she ‘said,’ Okay, you got it!

Although I am concerned about the biology of whales and the science behind their survival, the call to which I respond is a spiritual one. The energy with which they live and move and have their being in the sea is profound and connects me to that aspect of my own being. I believe they are planetary dreamers and their dreaming is absolutely a necessary part of the web of energy that connects all life on the planet.

Unlike science–which begins with a hypothesis and is followed by asking questions, gathering and examining evidence and seeing if the information can be combined to a logical answer–a spiritual connection is very subjective with little proof. That doesn’t bother me, though. For me it’s very real and profound…life-changing. Experiences like this help me expand my mind, think about life differently and hopefully apply that to all situations in my life.

I stopped trying to label mystical connections with animals and places long ago. I am simply grateful for these moments of expansion that lead to greater understanding…of species other than myself and of my soul’s journey with them.

 

 
Blue Heaven

Blue Heaven

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In Three Sisters Spring, a highly-visited spring in central Florida by manatees and people watching manatees, there are areas set aside as sanctuaries for resting manatees. Humans are not allowed to follow them past the barriers and the manatees know this. They head to these quiet places to rest and seek respite from the colder river.

I totally understand their desire to hide from massive amounts of people in this ‘warm’ water haven. In fact, I have often wanted to request a sanctuary for humans that simply want to float in stillness and quiet rather than be among those kicking, splashing, talking, yelling or crowding manatees….where is my sanctuary?

Earlier this week I found it. Two days in a row I had the spring to myself. Well….there were fish and a cormorant and maybe a sleeping manatee but there were no other humans. I floated face down watching the spring bubble up 15 feet below me and dropped into a deep stillness that comes when I’m in water, in my happy place.

There was no splashing, no loud voices…it was an amazing experience of beauty and peace.

Ripples of light reflecting off the sand created a wave of rainbows in constant motion. Bliss…delight…wonder…awe.

Suspended weightlessly, the spring and I were one.  There was nothing except those moments of harmony. What a time of renewal, of restoration.

One afternoon there was a large, sleeping manatee. I swam far away and past it to the big spring for my meditation. The manatee and I held space for each other to rest and relax with no expectations or demands. All encounters are not face-to-face. Perhaps some of the most profound are not even in close physical proximity.

I felt so alive and wonderful after spending so much time floating, drifting in stillness.

If you know me, you know I love manatees and whales and sea lions, whale sharks, dolphins….but what I love almost more than an encounter with them is giving them their space and honoring their need for rest and stillness. Cultivating respect for others…accepting their choices to engage or withdraw…and doing the same for myself leads to increased inner harmony and balance.

Wouldn’t it be great if we all could do that for each other and all species? That would perhaps be heaven. For me, it was Blue Heaven.

 
Flying Reindeer

Flying Reindeer

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reindeer-people-hamid-sardar-afkhami-1Once upon a time there lived people in northern Siberia, at the top of the planet in a place we call the North Pole. These people depended on reindeer for their lives. The antlered animals provided clothing, housing materials, wares, tools from bones and antlers, milk and even transportation. The Northern Tungusic people, known as the Evenki, even rode reindeer. But maybe….it wasn’t so long ago.

reindeer-people-hamid-sardar-afkhami-2Like many tribal societies worldwide, theirs was a shamanic culture. A shaman is one who knows or sees and takes journeys of flight through altered states of consciousness to gather information and wisdom. Those who practice a more modern form of shamanism today use the drum beat to alter their state of consciousness but traditional shaman often used psychoactive plants as a way to induce heightened states of awareness.

mongolia_reindeer_tribe_7Shaman are keen observers of nature. The Evenki shaman watched their beloved reindeer’s behavior after eating the fly agaric mushroom and realized there were psychoactive properties in the fungi. They began using a dried version to enhance their journeys of expanded awareness as the fresh version is toxic to humans…poor guy that learned that.

mongolia-tribe-reindeer-people-hamid-sardar-afkhami-8One of the side-effects of ingesting fly agaric is the sensation of flying. Another is seeing others fly, including reindeer. The shamanic journey is a flight of the spirit to non-ordinary reality so the Evenki men and women that took their spirit flights journeyed with ‘flying’ reindeer.

reindeerriders12Their spirit journeys were not about escaping reality or getting high. Instead, they used the journey to seek wisdom and knowledge and to honor the spirits, animals, plants and the natural world that gave them life. By connecting with the spiritual aspect of their world, they gathered information that helped them learn when to hunt, when to gather, when to move to other locations and how to treat illness of body and soul.

tsa-2tifShamanic cultures know the magical and mystical properties of the natural world by living in close affiliation with nature. In this way they maintain balance and harmony with the environment that supports and nurtures them.

imagesWe don’t need to ingest toxic mushrooms to take flights of spirit. We can use meditation, drumming and even sitting in stillness and silence to enhance our ability to shift our consciousness. Never before has it seemed so urgent that we connect with nature and alter our mindset and cluttered consciousness so that we might learn, once again, how to live in harmony with our planet.

reindeer-peopleThe flying reindeer remind me to connect with nature in a sacred way every day and allow my imagination to take flight and envision a world where we once again live in harmony with nature and all life. And then to take steps every day to engage in helping that vision come to pass.

 
The Owl

The Owl

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_tsl6552Buddy and I begin our walk at dusk–that time when darkness starts to overtake light, when the mysteries of night begin to unfold. I glance ahead and see The Owl. She’s on the ground picking at some morsel. When she lifts off, her wingspan fills the air with silent majesty.

simone-lipscomb-6354We know her. She lives and hunts in the trees surrounding our home. She has watched us before as we amble under green branches reaching toward the heavens. We have watched her.

She is more tolerant of us this day and flies onto a nearby limb. We move forward slowly, Buddy responding to my ‘shuuuu’ and finger to lips by crouching down and freezing. It’s a move we often practice with squirrels and birds.

simone-lipscomb-6352We creep up and see her looking into the woods. We freeze. She turns and looks our way and then makes eye contact with me and is unashamed to stare–with her big, round, dark eyes–straight through me, to the other side.

She glances back to the woods, unconcerned about the black and white canine and his human.

Several rounds of watching for dinner and watching us occur until she sees something of interest and flies to the ground, grabs it and eats it. A large insect perhaps. Then she lifts those massive, sturdy wings once more and finds another branch on which to perch.

_tsl6448Buddy follows her with his eyes, then looks at me. We crouch down and slowly move forward. This time we are much closer to her chosen tree. More staring at me, my soul…making eye contact with her eyes that appear as pools of black liquid…gateways into the Unknown.

The intense, heart-opening yoga practice I just completed has opened me and I let her in, expose the vulnerable core. She doesn’t look away…for a very long time. Neither do I.

_tsl6498The moment eventually breaks. We turn and leave the woods to her and her hunt. Buddy wonders where his box turtle friend has been this week. I am hesitant to inform him that the turtle might have been a guest at the Owl’s banquet. Years ago I came upon a red-tailed hawk eating a turtle. I thought that was impossible.

_tsl6538Birds of prey remind me that everything is possible when my intention is strong and I am willing to see into the darkness to seek the light.