We just finished Dolphin EDventures Wellness Program for 2007-08. What a wonderful season we had...so many fine folks came to join us in the water with the Coffs Harbour Four, swimming, playing, sharing time with a wonderful group of friendly ambassador dolphins.
Calamity, the rescued female, whose tail is not strong enough to survive the rigours of ocean life, is pregnant, again. She is due to deliver sometime around the end of November, and we are all very happy about this. How wonderful, to imagine Bella with a new baby brother or sister.
However, this means we will be unable to have our normal Wellness Program during the upcoming Australian summer. We have begun the search for another facility where we can do our Wellness Program, and are hoping to have arrangements made in time to begin a program in March of 2009. We will return to Coffs Harbour and the wonderful Pet Porpoise Pool in October of 2009 to resume our work here. Until then, we will be searching, visiting facilities in various parts of the world, and making arrangements.
Stay tuned to our blog and our website to see what we are planning. It is exciting, to begin a long-held dream of having more than one facility that allows visitors to have the deeper, quieter, more intimate kind of encounter that we encourage, where both human and dolphin can gain from the time together. We like to dream of many places in the coming years where this is possible, to satisfy the many people who want a more "authentic" time with the dolphins, not having trainers asking the dolphins for specific behaviours.
We have found that, working with the wonderful staff at the Pet Porpoise Pool, that it is not only possible, but actually easy to arrange this kind of program. It requires a facility and a training staff that trusts the dolphins, treats them with all due respect, and where there is as little stress as possible upon everyone --dolphins and trainers alike, so that everyone can be at ease. In an environment where everyone is comfortable, the feeling of joy and the fun of life can easily be shared. This is where some of the wellness that so many of our guests have found comes from, the harmonious experience of several species simply enjoying the wonder of life and sharing it. To know that another being, one who is so different, is enjoying you and your companions, and that you are able to share their enjoyment -- well, that is precious.
In the present moment, when we are not trying to redo the past, or attempting to live in the future, we are capable of touching the joy that exists in life. Dolphins, because they are so adept at being themselves, at being graceful in the water, so beautifully aware of all that is going on around them, show us a brilliant minded being who is present, attuned, and very aware. As one of our guests once said, "Dolphins know your story, and they don't BUY your story." They see the tensions and issues we carry, but they have no need to interact with that, only the fact that we are there, and capable of aware interaction. It is a refreshing thing to find oneself playing with someone who cares nothing about your past, or what you will do tomorrow, but is only here, only now, at ease.
Our search for another home for our work will take us into a new era, and we are looking forward to it. And enjoying each moment, here and now.
Stay tuned.
Scott and Amanda
The Ambassadors
No comments:
Post a Comment