The Whale Said “Thank You!”
In the spirit of compassion, I wanted to find something that someone else has done with compassion… I was at a loss this morning, until I received an email that made me leap from my chair exclaiming, “This is IT!” So, I share with you, what compassion is to me today… I share it with you with the same spirit in which the story is told. May we remember that we can learn compassion from any living thing and may we never forget the thread that unites us all as the powerful living beings that we are.
One of the divers on the rescue team works on the crab pot lines that held the female humpback whale near the Farallon Islands. The weight of the crab pots was pulling the animal down. Marine Mammal Center photo via Associated Press Credit: Marine Mammal Center
If you read the front page story of the SF Chronicle a few years ago, you would have read about a female humpback whale that had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines.
She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat.
She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, and a line tugging in her mouth.
A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farallon Islands (outside the Golden Gate) and radioed an environmental group for help.
Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her.
They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her…
When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles.
She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently around… she was thanking them.Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth said her eyes were following him the whole time, and he will never be the same.
May you, and all those you love, be so blessed and fortunate to be surrounded by people who will help you get untangled from the things that are binding you. And, may you always know the joy of giving and receiving gratitude.
(Full story here)
