*Best Friend Best Teacher Phase V

Phase V

Great Jumpin Dolphins

Back when I was first looking for a ‘pet psychic’ I found Penelope Smith’s web site and her Dolphin Adventure jumped out at me. I ‘knew’ I had to go. I signed up just after taking my first animal communication class. It was the perfect ending to this whole experience. Here is the letter to friends and clients upon my arrival home.

Hi Everyone,

As most of you know I recently went swimming with wild dolphins in the Bahamas to learn whatever it is we learn by doing that. These are a few of my experiences.

I started my great adventure with what God issued me and the clothes I stood up in. Lost Luggage. After months of shopping for just the right stuff (in Eureka it is cold — we don’t swim, wear shorts, sandals, sun hats, sunscreen, or go snorkeling) it was a non issue. But while others wrestled their luggage into the shuttle to the dock I enjoyed the morning light. While others wrestled their luggage onto the boat I watched the sun sparkle on the water. Once others had wrestled their luggage under the bunks in their rooms they started bringing me things. I was presented with the choice of one of two swimsuits which were identical to the two swimsuits I had in my luggage. I took the purple, it was my favorite all along. There were t-shirts, shorts and towels from the boats lost and found and others from my fellow travelers. When I mentioned to my roommate that I was going to miss my Teva’s she gave me hers saying she hadn’t been sure why she had brought them. Same with a dive skin. She had once lost her luggage and was very generous as people had been with her. The crew provided me with snorkeling gear. Within a half hour of being on the boat all my needs had been met. Later in the week when everyone had nothing but wet, rank towels and soggy clothes the crew did my laundry for me since they knew I didn’t have much stuff. Fresh towels! What a gift. I shared with my roommate. At the end of the week I slept like a baby while others packed their soggy stuff into suitcases that seemed too small. And in the morning while others lugged their stuff to the back deck for a customs check I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. When we arrived back at the hotel my luggage was there. Pristine. I had a glorious shower and pampered myself with all my own toiletries and put on my own clean clothes and felt like a million bucks. And when I got home there was no laundry to do. It’s a great way to travel. Beyond that it’s a lesson to me in accepting help, asking for what I need and finding abundance rather than scarcity.

Now when you take a trip with twenty-eight animal communicators you tend to expect a bit of weirdness and just decide to go with the flow. We had our first meeting at the hotel the night before boarding. Penelope Smith, the facilitator for the trip, had green hair and was a bit more peculiar than I had expected. There were a few kids, two hetero couples, one lesbian couple, and a mix of mostly women of all ages. After introductions Hodin, Penelope’s assistant, and Penelope started a chant — he was on drums and she chanting something resembling a Native American chant. I don’t recall the lead in to this except that I had always thought of that stuff as silly and was prepared to just endure it politely. About three beats into it I was bawling my eyes out. Somehow I had found my way home.

Once we were onboard we all discovered that we just loved our roommates. When you are with a bunch of people there are always those you hit it off with right away and those who make you grind your teeth. We all ended up with the former. After a couple of days of watching roommates interact I asked Penelope how she had made the room assignments. She printed out all of our applications (most by email — we hadn’t even touched these printouts) and matched them by the energy she got from them. That’s it. Simple.

The first few days we had bad weather so the dolphin encounters were few and far between but I was able to learn to cope with snorkeling. Plenty of time to practice. I went from gulping and sputtering salt water to being fairly proficient at diving. I had some help. Just a few weeks before leaving, my daughter in law Wonder lost her father. Gary was someone I felt close to the moment we met. He was an artist and sculptor. When he found he had kidney problems that would lead to his death he moved to Hawaii for a year to spend time doing luscious things like snorkeling. A few years ago he gave me a small feather he had carved from an antler. I knew he would love this trip so I put his feather on a chain and wore it on this trip. Strangely enough Scott Hanson, a renowned sculptor who makes his home in Hawaii and is a world-class free diver just happened to be on the trip. We hit it off right away. He taught me how to dive.

While we were waiting for the dolphins to find us interesting enough to spend time with we snorkeled here and there. No I didn’t get any mysterious vibes from the road to Bimini but I met a lot of fish I had never seen outside reef tanks and aquariums. The water is warm and very clear and the fish are glorious. God it was good.

There is so much to tell. Like the love that grew throughout our little community as the week went on, the bliss I felt “dancing” with a disabled girl to live Calypso music at the Complete Angler, the perfect moments of being belly to belly with a dolphin, the joy watching dolphins and humans playing together, the wonder of living in a community of healers each of us giving what we had to give and receiving what we needed spontaneously, easily. We became the flow. Now I know exactly what it is that I want to create here at home.

On our last day the dolphins came out to play for about 2 hours straight. Then there was THE MOST SPECTACULAR SUNSET I have ever seen. Then there was lightning periodically lighting up the clear night. The wonders just went on and on that day. It was the perfect end to a perfect adventure.

And somehow a lot of us came back with a streak or two of green in our hair.

Stay tunned for Phase VI
The Big Finale!