Dolphins of Makua

After a few years of investigating both the dolphins and myself, I sat  in bed In Waikiki asking myself "why?"  It was 4:00 a.m., and I was tired from getting up this early for the past few days, to do it again this morning.  I didn't really care for the streets lined with smoking shoppers….silver painted mannequins on boxes that began to move if you dropped a dollar in the bucket in front of them.  It felt like I walked the streets of a huge sprawling circus.  It was that beautiful Hawaiian weather I love .  The temperature was just right, beautiful sunsets… but I also saw tour busses, military in the fast food stores, homeless people laying in the bushes, and the pace was no different than any big city.  Past of the magic of Hawaii for me has always been the sloughing off of the rushing urgency that swells within me before I wake up in the morning.  A child anticipates the sunrise and early morning with  unbridled possibility and wonder… I was trying to retrieve this.  So each morning I awoke ,meditated, packed up and set off for the other side of the Island .  Makaha is located in Wainaie, on the eastern side of Oahu .  Makua area is where dolphins are reported to come in to rest or play  in pods of 30 to possibly 100 or more . 

That side of the Island is an hour away and I watched daybreak each morning .  I learned to recognize one particular trashed carcass of a car at the roadside as my marker that soon I would turn off and park.  That is part of the dolphin mystery.  On this journey there are no clearly marked signs of any kind either on land, or on water.  It doesn't take long to hold a mirror to yourself and one day ask "why?" ,why am I doing this, what is making me do this? 

I came face to face with what I needed to during this short trip.  I think if you get quiet enough, mysteries reveal themselves.  I discovered I was afraid to eve nstop for gas at the local station.  I had become very worried about how much the locals didn't want me around.  I got to see how much I manufactured.  What I truly discovered in the end.  Is this… genuine authentic sincerity and childlike appreciation is silent , wondrous, powerful and bonds strangers. 

What being on the dolphin trail, or movie  has done, is to mirror for me more of who I am and also what stands in the way of that.  I have come to respect my very fear of the ocean.  Because of the lldolphins and the whales, I have been willing to swim out deepr and farther in spite of and alongside my fears.  Survival fears and using sense is an instinct I claim, and allow it to help me balance.  Now I can teach others who have fear of the water.  We have something in common.  When I see those dorsal fins break the inky black looking water,  something inside surges in my chest.  My eyes fill with tears of wonder .  It has been my experience that no matte where I am, whomever is around me, family and strangers… we all stop and point and share and look and our hearts wag unashamed… with excitement… and the excitement of a child.  The dolphins and whales are to the sea what presents are to a Christmas tree. 

How I came to realilze I was hearing things later that day or a few days later or in dreams was at first subtle.  The ocean , and the cetaceans has become my field of dreams…. Of possibility if adults are still willing to believe in some part of themselves they  buried.  This is a linkn not only to freedom… horses, eagles, Chimpanzees, tigers  all help us to re-value freedom.  There is something else here.

Something inside us "knows" to look in the eye of a free swimming dolphin that has by choice slowed down to share  with you…there is an intelligence based on wisdom.  Wisdom itself has a frequency, a vibration that is unmistakable.  It sends lightning through your whole body…luckily while using a snorkel it hasn't made me stop breathing nor cause damage. 

A few days allowed me to relax ,acclimate and encourage a more relaxed routine within myself, and the theme of self- sufficiency surfaced one day.  Self sufficiency… and I knew the dolphin code of self-sufficiency is a much more cooperative one than the human model.  Science has long studied animal behavior from a patronizing point of view.  How much more challenging it is to study from a peer point of view.  IF this were not the case, the increasing heart's desire of so many people on this planet would not be to just see a pod of dorsal fins breaking the water some morning. 

One morning I witness their sense of humor…their alleged sneak attack on a sailboat.  They swam closer and closer while the people on board were looking entirely in the other direction, ,with a quick bust of speed they surrounded the boat and two of them actually shot out in forn of the vessel.  On cue, I saw about 10 dolphins leap in  the air in unision, splash down and leap again,  and then once again.  The power, the joy, the strength and freedom of it all…and so  I know that in asking  "why?"  I am encouraging, saying yes to the journey of mine that has somehow entwined with the gifts of the ocean.

So I thank the ocean, the beach, each daybreak, the local fisherman I spoke with that asked" so you swim with porpoiose yet?"  who was concerned… and my own pysical body for being willing to swim out so far, and also return me to shore.