Swimming with the Whales - One more week!

“For hope is but the dream of those that wake.” Matthew Prior

One more week and I’ll be taking the first Whale Song 2008 group to Ha’apai Tonga with the intention to meet and listen to the majestic and infinitely wise Humpback whales. Whether or not you feel you connect with the ‘other’ intelligent species on this planet or not it doesn’t matter. The great whales have and continue to sacrifice themselves for our own evolution.

Few of us know that since commercial whaling began in the 1500’s and as a species we began to get our collect act together and organize ourselves in ever more efficient ways, the Whales became our providers. Through countless millions of deaths, countless hundreds of millions of barrels of oil were derived and divided amongst our clan.

Oil to light the streets and homes of our capital city’s like Boston, Tokyo, Lisbon, San Francisco, Sydney, Durban, Vancouver and Amsterdam the list goes on and on. At night whales provided street lighting that secured a measure of safety for residents. The oil lit our homes as our great minds feverishly worked on our plans of greater and greater industrialization and eventually globalization. Our factory’s grew in size, lubricated by the great and peaceful mammals hides, boiled down and distributed and while the pockets of the few were similarly oiled.

We wore them, we tinkled ivory keys in the great music halls made from them, made toys and upholstery from them, we made springs for the first typewriters from baleen whales (humpbacks, blue, right’s, fins) that allowed us to create our books and information at a pace never before seen. We made soap from them and washed ourselves while their blood remained on our hands. And still today with all our technology and reliance on synthetics we haven’t replaced their oil for our finest machinations. The space shuttle and space exploration program all oiled with the juice of the whale, even our most destructive weapons systems, the inter-continental ballistic missiles that sit pointed ominously at each other, codes resting with the most dubious and trigger happy beings that have arguably ever held ‘power’ are oiled by them.

The whale.

Silent reminder of our in-humanity. The beings that I believe have held us in such esteem, held space and gave everything for us to evolve so that we might make the quantum leap into awareness and oneness, into humanity. Beings so evolved they gave up fingers hands and arms long ago, using their brains, the largest and most evolved on this planet for purely peaceful purposes.

I share this message today as one of hope. As a father I want for my children a life and a world that contains and preserves the beauty that I see all around. I struggle with my own extreme level of comfort, comfort that has me reside in the top few percentile of beings on this planet, wondering how and what it will take for me to give up so others can experience the basics. How can I, one of the privileged few make a difference to others in a way that contributes to the whole?

Sometimes I write, to you and to myself. I write to remind myself of my intentions. Each morning I set my intentions. I write a to-be list that includes a lot of what I am to-do. I go on negativity diets, abstaining from the addictive news and current affairs programs opting for a dinner and a talk with my sons and partner. I read with them or play or listen to them. In my time I work on my visions ideas or journal, where I write about how and what I want and I feel what it is like to have it in my mind’s eye. I take risks, in life and business. I swim miles offshore with dolphins in hundreds of feet of water, I skydive and practice listening to and feeling the wind or feeling my heartbeat in free-fall. I create projects that I often have no idea how I will pull them off. I make mistakes often and believe that this is my best way to learn.

I’m learning to listen more and be present, for it is my belief that God speaks to me at all times, through millions of moments in millions of ways and when I remember that wow…

What dolphins and whales have taught me is to be present to the now. They are masters of it, giving us glimpses of just how to achieve that level of mastery by their very presence. I am certain they understand our joy and en-joy that experience with us. I am just as certain they understand our pain and are compassionate about that. I have seen amazing things with special needs children and dolphins in the wild.

I feel that regardless of our illusion of separation and the damage we do to our environment, to them and to each other Cetacea have hope. They hope we evolve and take our place as masters, true masters and guardians of this planet, our mother Gaia. They give us as Plutarch said “friendship for no advantage”.

I invite you to follow us on our journey with the whales beginning 28th July 2008 through to the 14th August. Click on www.dolphcom.com.au and add the website to your favorites. Our new website goes on-line this week, we’ll have live feeds, daily clips, pictures and blogs as you share 30 global citizens journey through the process of joy that is Whale Song.

I’ll see you there,

Dolphin Smiles

Andrew Parker