spotted dolphins off the Bahama Banks
Touch. How we need it. When I say "we", I mean all sentient beings. You can tell someone you love them, and look them in the eye and show it, but there is just something about touch that allows so much bypassing of the mind and goes straight to the heart of what is needed as well as desired.
There is rampant evidence in all the animal kingdoms of the love of touch as an expression of bonding, but dolphins carry it to a whole other level. I have spent hours watching them under water as well as on top of the water, and over and over I am struck by how much they love physical contact.
Strangely enough, many humans are walking around starving for touch. How can this be, you may ask. How hard can it be to 'reach out and touch someone.' Well, in our culture, touch is charged with so many different meanings that it has long since become a very complicated form of communication, and even suspect in many instances. More's the pity, for without it, we are operating at a much lesser level of health and well being. One reason so many people love their pets so much as this is one area where we don't have to monitor our motives in wanting contact. There are some animals that will not allow contact having to do with trauma they have suffered, bu mostly, animals seem to have the philsophy, the more touch, the better.
It is amazing how many problems automatically lose their grip on us when we are held. Our head can clear and an approach to dealing with things problematical suddenly does not seem remote at all.
So yes, love each other from the heart, but also, can we just make touch safe again. We so need it, and always will.
There is rampant evidence in all the animal kingdoms of the love of touch as an expression of bonding, but dolphins carry it to a whole other level. I have spent hours watching them under water as well as on top of the water, and over and over I am struck by how much they love physical contact.
Strangely enough, many humans are walking around starving for touch. How can this be, you may ask. How hard can it be to 'reach out and touch someone.' Well, in our culture, touch is charged with so many different meanings that it has long since become a very complicated form of communication, and even suspect in many instances. More's the pity, for without it, we are operating at a much lesser level of health and well being. One reason so many people love their pets so much as this is one area where we don't have to monitor our motives in wanting contact. There are some animals that will not allow contact having to do with trauma they have suffered, bu mostly, animals seem to have the philsophy, the more touch, the better.
It is amazing how many problems automatically lose their grip on us when we are held. Our head can clear and an approach to dealing with things problematical suddenly does not seem remote at all.
So yes, love each other from the heart, but also, can we just make touch safe again. We so need it, and always will.
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