The following is a true story that serves as a reminder of one of the most important ingredients in our healing process-faith. Whether the we are healing our bodies, mind, emotions; our relationships, or our immediate to expanded community, with faith ever present in our lives we are able to manifest our intended goals.

My heart felt heavy this day as if it were carrying the weight of the world’s sorrows within it. So many displays of human cruelty had been displayed lately around the world as well as right here in my otherwise tranquil community. Another Mid-East war involving the NATO armies had broken out, and there's the sensational news stories about how cruel humans can be to one another, plus I had recently experienced an enormous betrayal that had me down.

It was about 7:15am when I arrived at a coral-rich bay were I love to swim. Standing at the shoreline overlooking the bay, I witnessed a a pod of around 100 dolphins rise up for air. I took a deep breath, whispered a prayer of gratitude and proceeded to join my beloved dolphin friends. I was the only person there. The dolphins' pod was made up of a sweet family of adults, adolescents and babies on this very quite morning.

I slowly glided out to deeper water using what we call a “dolphin kick” (legs together, arms by the sides and making undulating movements using the abdominals and back). Soon I was surrounded by a pod of about 20 dolphins, mostly adults with two newly born babies and one baby about three months old.

When the dolphins greeted me I began to cry. They slowed down and moved even closer to me placing me in the middle of their formation. At that moment I asked them, “What do we do about how harsh a large population of humanity has become? What do we do? What do we do?” Immediately I heard an answer in a very strong, staccato rhythm, “You - Must - Strengthen - Your - Faith.” The dolphins' telepathic message was so clear, simple and yet tremendously powerful. I felt waves of strength moving through me from this loving pod. They were encouraging me to snap out of my sadness and feelings of despair and return to a place of empowerment through faith.
I realized in that moment that I had allowed myself to get caught up in the dramas being acted out on the world stage. I began to cry very hard at that point. My tears were not of sorrow this time but rather tears of release from the illusions of separation that I had temporarily bought into.

My mask had fogged up from crying. I took if off and rinsed and cleared it. Before replacing my mask back over my eyes, I allowed myself to lie back in the water and simply float, breathe and relax, recalling the potent words of wisdom that had just permeated my body, mind and emotions.

I could feel the dolphins all around and underneath me beaming me love and reassurance that all is well, no matter what appears. After repositioning my mask, I dove down under the waves to immerse myself fully into the water. Floating and spinning and diving even further into this clear, turquoise silken liquid I felt free of care in a new and stronger way. As I began my ascent for a breath of air, a mother dolphin joined me with her baby. Blowing bubbles from her blow hole, the baby repeated the word with great confidence. “Faith - Faith - Faith”, she said. The mother and her baby stayed with me for I'd guess about an hour. From time to time we were joined by the rest of the pod. (Dolphins' common behavior while in a bay is to circle within it. Quite often they will move out into deeper water then circle back into the shallows. So there is never need to swim after them because they almost always come back in.)

I felt such comfort from the mother as if she were energetically nurturing my wounded heart. The baby continued looking at me with such sweetness I could feel my heart melting, returning only to feelings of love. After a while, other swimmers joined us, many were close friends and community members. The dolphin pod appeared happy to see their human friends and they began jumping in the air spinning and flipping to everyone's delight and cheers. I had such an emotional cleansing that I swam with my friends a little longer before heading back to shore. On my way in, I spotted a large octopus resting within the bumpy recesses of a huge mushroom shaped coral. He took on the same appearance as the coral in color and texture. I was surprised I was able to spot him in his disguise. I observed him from the surface of the water choosing to leave him to his peace. Then I continued on my way to lie down upon the warm, smooth lava-lined shoreline and reflect on my experience this morning.

While in my reflective state, I thought about these wondrous dolphins and the descriptive name of "Earth Angels" came to mind. They come to us and give their love, acceptance and assistance so purely. Dolphins have been known to protect humans, save lives and even guide ships through stormy seas. Their connection to humans is legendary and to understand them best is to see them through our hearts and remember to see every man, woman and child in the same light. When we do this, we can more easily look at others with compassion rather than project an unkind reaction to them. From a place of compassion, understanding and resolving an issue or situation can be brought about in peace, for the highest good for all.