It takes a village to raise a child. Sometimes it takes a mega-pod of dolphins running together to raise a consciousness.

The largest mega-pod of dolphins ever reported was sighted last week off the coast next to San Diego, California. No-one knows the exact numbers but miles long and miles wide, seemingly endless, and all dolphins swimming at full throttle.

Speculations abound as to why this was happening ranging all the way from, the dolphins fleeing from earth changes, to getting away from Navy airguns and seismic testing to huge numbers of sardines and herrings sounding the dinner bell and so forth .In a week with asteroid fly by's. meteor landings. Pope's retiring and earthquakes, the dolphin event seemed like one more signature of the amazing times we are living in.

So who is right about what is behind this phenomenon? For any question that can be asked, the 'rightness' of the answer depends on which level you are hearing the question. If you are strictly interested in the 5 sense physical level, you might get one answer. If you go to the level of the power of thought that has a lot of influence over other minds (and thusly creates beliefs), other answers would be accurate. If you go the etheric level where the physical and spiritual realms interface, you get still another answer.
 
In asking myself what is behind this amazing phenomenon, I am drawn to considering  what I understand about fields of energy dolphins know how to create. What I have  learned from being around dolphins extensively is that there is a field around them that is good for many things, most primarily, releasing one from fear and allowing a balancing of energies, within the human and the environment at large. The immediate response to release from fear is joy and confidence both in oneself and life at large. Over and over, people around dolphins report feeling joy. it is just something that happens spontaneously.

Whatever fish were luring them or catastrophe they were avoiding, these dolphins were creating a HUGE field of energy by running together in such large numbers. I think of the field like a bubble that expands and expands and affects more and more consciousnesses that are open to healing and balancing. These are times of massive change so the need for re-balancing is now present on a very large scale. And it is not just any re-balancing that is called for. It is a new KIND of balance. We humans are now working without a net, so to speak, and as we get spiritually bolder, we need all the help we can get.

Dolphins are showing us so much, something I have been writing about forever it feels. But they are also energetically providing a form of love and encouragement when the going gets rough. 

Whatever else they were up to, they gave us an energetic gift by their 'stampede.' To derive the benefit, just think about it, imagine it or watch a video, and see what you feel. Your nervous system knows a good thing when it feels it and will register the dolphin's gift for you. Who knows. Harking back to this remembered phenomenon may save your life some day. 

On the eve of Valentine's Day, I am slipping in a blue-eyed reminder of the incredible love vibe our animals give us 24/7/365. Ridley is my near genius level (half Border Collie, half husky) pooch I got as a pup. I could write pages about what 'His Smartness' has accomplished in his life so far, but I will spare you the proud parent talk. Anyhow, back to the beginning - it went down like this.

 I had lost my collie ten months earlier and was not ready for a dog yet. I had just gotten back from San Francisco in middle of night and was jetlagged and planning on sleeping in.

Instead, I was awakened after only a couple of hours of sleep with an insistent inner message to drive almost an hour away to Petsmart. I knew it was adoption Saturday and as I said, I was not ready to be tempted by a 4 legged. But to no avail. The pull to go was strong. So I cut a deal with myself. I would go, look around, and then come back home.

Upon arriving at Petsmart, I walked in the door and was met by a man holding a puppy who had the most electric blue eyes I had ever seen on an animal. The man simply handed the puppy to me. We were't even in the section of the store where the adoption was taking place. I was so mesmerized by the eyes of this being. They were just stunning. (His eyes now have morphed into sky blue). I walked around the store holding this pup as if in a trance. I honestly don't remember deciding whether to get him or not. I just ended up with him.

What is clear clear clear to me is that he pulled me in. I was resistent, but he was stronger.

Riddley Diddley (one of his monikers) has been with me for eight years now. As my consciousness shifts, I always notice changes in him. I used to think he was also shifting but now I think it is more that I can just see deeper into who he has been all along.
 
I have two cats and another dog in addition to Ridley and they are likewise each remarkable in their own way so deserve mention, but Ridley is the main thrust of this blog. Just as he pulled me to come get him that day eight years ago at Petsmart, I think he pushed me to write about him today. I really do wonder who is in charge here. 

Masters of the nap. That is what cats are. They nap often and well and they live for a long time.

Being a master of napping is not just a matter of being able to sleep for short periods here and there during the day. It is the QUALITY of their napping that is enviable. They go deep. They drop all cares and their bodies and psyches get a complete break.

Interestingly, a cat can go from deep sleep to instantaneous hyper alertness in a nano second. Now that is a trick. For humans, frequently you have the light sleepers that can wake up quickly, and the deep sleepers who have to take their time in surfacing from their sleepy depths.

Some people say they cannot nap, and if they try, they sleep too long and feel worse afterwards. So naps appear not to be an equal opportunity employer. I for one thrive on short bursts of sleep here and there, as needed. I always feel I could leap from tall buildings after 10 - 20 minutes of timing out. It has always been thus for me and, I know we are all different.

I do believe for those that can and do nap, your body and spirit benefit thereby and just that ongoing habit of rejuvenation I suspect adds years to your life. Add to that a strong sense of your purpose (why you are here in the first place) and a feeling of joy that you participate in easily and frequently and, we are all going to live to be as old as Methusla, whoever he was.

When one of their own falls, crows do this amazing thing. They all fly close to where the crow died, a member of their crow community, and they sit quietly for a short while, and then they all fly off. Clearly, this is some kind of acknowledgment.

A PBS special on crows shared the latest research on these remarkable birds. We now know that their intelligence and cognitive abilities go way beyond what anyone suspected.

As we humans are being given an opportunity to evolve into much more of our potential, animals are likewise evolving. They have always had their animal wisdom and power and beauty but now, they are taking things to the next levels, it appears. Maybe they have always been this on par with us cognitively and we just failed to notice until now. Certainly, their value has always been 100% as beings that carry life within themselves and their own special place in the whole. Now we are seeing the error of our ways in not giving the creatures equal value to ourselves, though our roles on the planet are different.

This will be known as the time of humanity's humbling. No more turning a blind eye to the awesomeness we live among, in all forms. Being humbled is not so bad. When I look at the times of my life when I have been arrogant and the times when I have felt humble, hands down, being humbled is the best. It is such a relief, and leaves a huge space for joy just in the privilege of being able to participant in this amazing adventure called life on earth.

I live with a 'murder' of crows close by (yes, a 'murder' is the name of a cluster of crows) and they are truly my brothers and sisters. I am very aware of them, and their calls to each other never fail to get my attention. Here's the other thing. They are aware of me too. Crows are great watchers of humans and even pass on to their young which humans do what. They have face memory!!! When I speak to them, they cock their heads, for what that is worth.

Watch the PBS special. It will blow your mind.

In the cartoon B.C., everytime the cave woman saw the snake character, she would proceed to club it mercilessly. Fortunately, the snake was of the hardy sort, and would just get a headache and rue that everyone seemed to have it in for him. And then, in the Adam and Eve saga, the snake is made out to be the villain of the piece. And so it has gone throughout history. Snakes have gotten a very bad rap. True, dying by snake bite has been a big exit route for untold numbers of humans throughout history, but when you don't have arms to push back, how else but with fangs do you get someone to leave you alone? Think about it from the snake's point of view.

But there is more to the story. Snakes have a bad rap, and they also have a very good rap. The snake coiled at the base of the spine is the source of all awakening as he/she goes up the spine on its kundalini swim to the top. In plant wisdom ceremonies using the Amazonian brew known as Ayahuasca (used by shamans for thousands of years), the most commonly reported experience is of meeting a wisdom spouting snake.
 
Which brings to mind, a story by the author of The Fingerprints of the Gods, Graham Hancock.I encountered this story just the other night while watching a video of one of his totally absorbing lectures on hidden civilizations. Graham has himself worked with Ayahuasca down in South America under the guidance of a particular shaman. During one of the visionary "journeys" while in an altered snake, a huge anaconda came and wrapped all around Graham and ended up with her head right next to his. This snake was, as is frequently the case on these journeys, the embodiment of Ayahuasca herself, in snake form. To be so snake wrapped, I assure you, is one of the more intimidating experiences you could have in the alter world that Ayahuasca invites you into.

 Important to know in evaluating these 'journeys' with Ayahuasca, her (and she is a 'she') main purpose is the care of the whole planet and all of the systems on the planet and the consciousness of humans who need to re-connect with nature so that they and the planet might survive. So she has a very very large job to do, and yet, Graham said, she was choosing to just be with him. She could destroy him in an instant but what she did with him was simply let him know, it was imperative that he learn to love himself. That's it. That simple. Just learn to love yourself.

That an energy that large, and that magnificent and at the same time terrifying would attend to something Graham very much needed to do for his own welfare, was, by his own testimony, one of the most humbling and heart opening experiences of his life. That's snake wisdom for you. It takes what it takes to go through a genuine transformation and if a snake can be of such vast assistance, who are we to say no.

One last but not inconsequential thing. For clairvoyants who are able to see the colors in the auras of all beings, it is reported that the snake is the only animal that has all colors in its aura. The whole spectrum. So that would make them little (and sometimes not so little) rainbow ambassadors on the planet. Who doesn't love rainbows?

So many people feel it. When they see a whale, are close to a whale, or hear a whale. They feel the presence of something momentous that our very cells seem to recognize and remember. But what?

Whales and dolphins too have been on this earth up to 50 million years. With their high intelligence, they have observed things we know nothing of. They have watched us grow and develop, learn to build structures and populate the earth, and they see where this has taken us, including decimating them. If you look closely at this whale, you will see a tear coming out of its eye as it lays next to our structures. It is up to the observer to decide what is this whale crying about.

I have felt for some time a desire to have my life be about bringing the land and the seas together, and the people of the land and the people of the seas. We both have so much to offer each other and the whole we make up when combined. I daydream about communities of sharing and co-creating between we land creatures and the sea beings. It feels more like a memory than a day dream.

Clearly, our ocean and its inhabitants are in jeopardy at this juncture, as are we all until we turn the tide of our forgetfulness of how all is connected. This is not news. In fact, so many are so used to hearing it, that this intimation of foreboding even fails to register to people so highly distracted by so much information coming at them from all sides.   It seems to be one of many "urgent" messages we are inundated with.
 
So I say, forget the words. forget the messages and just look at this image of the sand whale long enough to allow something inside you to stir as to how you might want to respond to this whale. I know how I would respond. I would say the Hawaiian prayer "I am so sorry"  "please forgive me"  "thank you" " I love you.".  I would say that, and I do say that, over and over, until something inside starts to alchemically shift, and I no longer feel guilty or sorrowful or despair ( which only worsens things) at choices humans have made, out of ignorance..I say the Hawaiian prayer until the boundary between Us and whomever the current 'Them' is, is gone, and I can no longer think of who is the good guy and who is the bad guy.

When I feel the consciousness of 'Whale', whether from this sand whale or an actual at sea whale, it feels like the Divine to me in that I sense no judgment of humans. It feels like whales are the givers of absolution that is granted us even before we know we need it. I think the song "Amazing Grace' has its roots in more than one source, and who cannot feel the power of that song.
 
Self forgiveness is a very good place to start in how to respond to whale consciousness that is still with us, for now. May we wake up (oh please let us do this) soon enough to be with them forever.

Last year, my dog Ridley (on the left) and I both suffered the loss of my other husky Annie. Annie was a rescue I got for Ridley on his first birthday and they were the best of friends for seven years. She was older when I got her so her life seemed to end way too soon but in truth, in dog years, it was not surprising.
 
After her demise, both Ridley and I were grieving. Ordinarily, I would not have gotten another dog so soon but I felt a pull to look online for another rescue husky because Ridley seemed to need some comfort of the doggy kind. I found one (from a picture) that grabbed my heart from the getgo, but would Ridley like him?. I drove Ridley to South Carolina to see if this was a fit The picture you see is of their very first sniff.

Here is my question. How did they know, from that sniff, that they wanted to be together. Ridley is very finicky about who he hangs out with but, it was instant love, on both sides. This dog was named, and appropriately so, Cassanova. Choosing 'Caz' to come home with us was a no brainer. Even though I was not over the loss of Annie yet, Caz needed to be with us and both he and Ridley voted yes and so . . .that was that.

When I think of it, the people in my life who end up being my best friends are ones I hit it off with almost immediately. There is just a knowing. Where we get all that informatiion, who knows. Dogs use their noses as computers to figure so many things out. I remember growing up how strong the bonds of friendship were and how they would just emerge in some magical way. As an adult it is easier to believe friendships are based on common interests and shared perspectives, but as a child, it was just a matter of feeling like you wanted to show this one other child in the group the frog in your pocket. You don't know why. You just do. As children, we are all doggies. We can just sniff out who wants to see our frog.

Just so you know, Caz and Ridley continue in their bonded state. I love watching the evidence of their fondness for each other. God bless the Internet.

You may note, all the fish in the picture are heading in one direction, except for the little guy veering away. In general, schools of fish swim as one body. Whatever possessed the one fish to do something different?

During the times we are living in, it is an excellent thing to seek out our own kind, those that share the same "growing edge" of perception that we do. There is power in numbers and the collective is where the greatest amount of transformation can occur for the planet as a whole. Even so, every so often, you will find you need to step aside and follow an inner prompting that is not, strictly speaking, in keeping with the group.

 What does such a choice amount to, in the bigger scheme? I would suggest, a couple of things. One is, we are each unique individuals, and sometimes, the uniqueness can get lost in the affinity (the a "fin" ity!) we have with our brothers and sisters. To support this uniqueness, we need to break ranks for a bit. We can then rejoin, renewed and fortified in the truth of our being. Another piece is that the one who cuts away from the group can come upon a very significant and/or important piece of awareness and can return and share it such that all benefit. Even the best of collective energies can stand to be refreshed in such a manner.

I ask myself why bring this notion up now. I think it is because there are some very strong currents out there regarding what is going on here on this amazing planet at this time. When advised to go with the flow, the question becomes "which flow?" I think the answer is . . "your own." Sometimes you cannot always tell what that flow is until you separate for a short time (or longer if you need it).

The power of and need for bonding one with another is potent indeed and, among other things, increases the strength of our immune systems and gives us the ability to deeply relax. Lynn McTaggert's work shows us about just how powerful our ties to each other are. I bow in gratitude for her work. And . . .  the fish that turned left is doing something very important for the whole, potentially.

Years ago, a book Jonathan Livingston Seagull became a runaway best seller. It was the story of a seagull that left the group and gained great wisdom that serves the very ones he left. Similar kind of thing. I have in other places pointed out an observation about dolphins I have had that they seem to have mastered the ability to be pod members and retain their individuality at the same time like no where else in nature that I have observed. I don't think humans are that good at doing these two things simulaneously yet, so, until we master that, maybe a little veering off here and there is a good thing. Just saying! And re-unions are so much fun!

Several years ago, I discovered something fascinating about my very smart dog Ridley. He became obsessed with watching the men's gymnastics part of the Olympics. That was the only part of the Olympics he showed any interest in, but every time they would come on, he would watch intently.

As Fate would have it, he has since put that knowledge to good use. As of this year, he learned how to hoist himself up on the railing of a fenced in area around his dog house, balance on the railing, and then jump down on the other side. It is no small feat for him to do that. The first time must have been the hardest because of how he had to position himself just right to make it work, but now, he has it down.
 
I am amused and amazed at his having figured this out and truly suspect he learned a thing or two during those hours of watching the gymnasts. So all of you reading this that have furry members of your family, be warned. Our furry friends are gaining on us. They are a lot smarter than they have been given credit for. I think they have wanted their cognitive abilities to be a secret. In the case of Ridley, his cover is blown. I knew from day one he was a thinker. Never mind the squeaky toys. He wanted a chess board.