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July 3, 2006
- Day 6 - Week 13 - A Day at Ocean’s Edge
It is hard to believe, but I
still subscribe to the theory that all work and no
play make Peter a dull boy. A bit of down time in
nature is time well spent. Yesterday, here in
Southern California, the sun shone, the wind was
calm, and an entire family of dolphins played for
hours in front of the home where Katy and I spent
the afternoon, and on into the evening. Bill and
Cheryl Chadwick’s recently completed beachfront home
in Malibu was the perfect setting to take in the
smell of the sea, the warmth of the sun, and the
bounty of nature all at one time. Our play was in
the form of a walk on the beach and watching the
children swim, but the celebration we witnessed
coming via a dolphin party in the waves was an
unexpected joy to behold.
I have lived here since 1974.
I have seen the dolphins swimming and playing
hundreds of times through the years. I have hosted
a scientist on Earth Talk Today who is an expert on
the Pacific dolphins. I have a good friend Pam
Stacey who edited the Dolphin Log for Jacques
Cousteau and who has done television specials on
dolphins. However, yesterday Katy and I, and
coincidentally Ian, my co-host Alexandra’s husband
(she is off in Canada filming a Lifetime
movie) all witnessed simultaneously something that I
just had to tell everyone about.
We three had been watching the
dolphins surf the waves, chase each other in
circles, when all of a sudden, as if on cue from a
trainer, we watched two large dolphins jump high in
the air, spin around and dive back into the water.
Perhaps only 50 feet off of the beach and 75 feet
from us this display of exuberance and athletic
ability left us speechless. They jumped and were eye
level and we were 15 feet off the sand. Ian, a tri
athlete and trainer of other world class
swimming-biking-running super stars had only seen
this display once in his entire life of swimming in
the ocean. Katy and I felt our host had probably
flipped a switch to entertain his guests because the
performance was nature at its absolute finest. No
rewards, no bells or training devices, and no Pavlov
like director at the controls, the dolphins played
for the pure pleasure of the experience and we got
to watch.
Now this display, and the
continuing frolicking could be described as real
therapy for whatever ailment someone may have.
Play, genuine child like, not childish, behavior is
at a minimum one of the finest ways of feeling
better I know. Getting on the floor and playing
Thomas the Train with the grandkids, or building a
sand castle only to have the wave crash over
everything and everyone, or even playing bocce with
friends on the front lawn are all forms of therapy.
We all need to allow the child in us to come out in
healthy ways more often, even when we are completely
well and feeling tiptop.
Once again nature has been a
marvelous teacher for us. Serendipity took over and
on a day of battling bumper to bumper traffic to get
to and from our destination, two grey bottlenose
dolphins played themselves right into our hearts.
Hooray for a day at the beach.
Happy Fourth!
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