Your perpetual smile and brightly intelligent eyes draw something eternal, primal from deep within my soul. Watching you blow bubble rings and swim through them so playful and free inspires me down to my toes – which I sometimes secretly wish were flukes or a powerful dolphin tail.
I am awed by your life of sliding serenely and majestically through the water, leaping for the sheer joy of it! I feel envious of the freedom, the bliss of being with a community which behaves just as nature dictates.
Riding bow waves of passing boats, chasing a bit of seaweed, caring for your newborn baby – your true nature is fun-loving and so very smart.
You can be heroic, when necessary, acting to rescue a swimmer in trouble or fight off a shark.
Fluid and flowing, the water slipping over your smooth gray skin – you are a wonder of science and sea.
Echolocating with clicks, you can literally see “into” me (into me see = intimacy). It is impossible to hide or be false with you because you can see all of me, inside and out. In that skill, you remind me of my mother’s gift of looking into my eyes to “read” the truth there.
You are an amazing miracle of the sea!
**Author’s note: This love letter is a tribute to dolphins, with whom I have had a long love affair. One of my best memories of interacting with dolphins was at the Dolphin Research Center in the Florida Keys. I had the great privilege of swimming in a small, controlled group, with dolphins in natural saltwater pens. Many dolphins were being rehabilitated from stress of performing at theme parks and aquariums. There were studies of the dolphins’ behavior with children with autism, people with PTSD, and a host of other research topics, showing astounding positive results from human/dolphin interaction.
One woman in our group was singled out by a couple of the dolphins who excitedly clicked at her midsection. The staff member leading the tour spoke quietly into the woman’s ear, and with her permission, announced that the dolphins were able to “see” her pregnancy with their echolocation clicks and were happy for her!
These intelligent and beautiful, graceful marine mammals are being severely damaged by our human polluting activities: plastics and microplastics, oil spills, habitat loss, dwindling food supply, toxic blue green algae, and red tide – all are having an extremely negative impact on these and all marine life, especially the endangered manatee. These are warm-blooded, air-breathing mammals, like us, and the devastating loss of them diminishes us tremendously.
I am awed by your life of sliding serenely and majestically through the water, leaping for the sheer joy of it! I feel envious of the freedom, the bliss of being with a community which behaves just as nature dictates.
Riding bow waves of passing boats, chasing a bit of seaweed, caring for your newborn baby – your true nature is fun-loving and so very smart.
You can be heroic, when necessary, acting to rescue a swimmer in trouble or fight off a shark.
Fluid and flowing, the water slipping over your smooth gray skin – you are a wonder of science and sea.
Echolocating with clicks, you can literally see “into” me (into me see = intimacy). It is impossible to hide or be false with you because you can see all of me, inside and out. In that skill, you remind me of my mother’s gift of looking into my eyes to “read” the truth there.
You are an amazing miracle of the sea!
**Author’s note: This love letter is a tribute to dolphins, with whom I have had a long love affair. One of my best memories of interacting with dolphins was at the Dolphin Research Center in the Florida Keys. I had the great privilege of swimming in a small, controlled group, with dolphins in natural saltwater pens. Many dolphins were being rehabilitated from stress of performing at theme parks and aquariums. There were studies of the dolphins’ behavior with children with autism, people with PTSD, and a host of other research topics, showing astounding positive results from human/dolphin interaction.
One woman in our group was singled out by a couple of the dolphins who excitedly clicked at her midsection. The staff member leading the tour spoke quietly into the woman’s ear, and with her permission, announced that the dolphins were able to “see” her pregnancy with their echolocation clicks and were happy for her!
These intelligent and beautiful, graceful marine mammals are being severely damaged by our human polluting activities: plastics and microplastics, oil spills, habitat loss, dwindling food supply, toxic blue green algae, and red tide – all are having an extremely negative impact on these and all marine life, especially the endangered manatee. These are warm-blooded, air-breathing mammals, like us, and the devastating loss of them diminishes us tremendously.
©Karen Bonnell, 2022
