It was the last morning of a mindfulness retreat I was leading. I was getting ready for our final practice together and closing circle when the distress call came in.
A guest had gone for an early-morning walk on the beach and had come across a very large aquatic creature that had recently been stranded. It was still alive and flapping/gasping, but deteriorating rapidly and she needed help trying to save him.
She had been calling in whales for the entire retreat, so this was an interesting turn of events.
I ran down the beach and arrived about 10 minutes after the call came in to find “R” using her shoe as a shovel in an attempt to dig a trench to push the creature back into the ocean.
The tide appeared to be going out and he had been without oxygen for quite some time. It was a race against the clock.
At first I thought it was a baby whale but on closer inspection it appeared to be an immense fish. We estimated his weight to be close to 300 pounds. His large eye was open and slowly blinking at us. His expression seemed to be one of desperation, confusion and helplessness.
One minute you’re swimming along, enjoying the sun on your back and the next you’re flailing helplessly against the sand, not sure where you took a wrong turn or how to get back on track. Surely we’ve all felt this.
Every once in a while a fin would weakly, helplessly flap against the mass of his gray body trapped firmly in the sand: a futile attempt at finding comfort and ease again.
I remembered all those times I felt desperate, confused, hopeless and trapped. I felt his stuck-ness and gasping breaths as my own.
I put my hand on the firm, cold, musculature of him, looked into his eye and vowed that I would do everything I could to get him back into the ocean.
We pushed as hard as we could but made absolutely no progress.
I ran back to the house to see what tools I could find to help. About 15 minutes later, I returned with some shovels, buckets, boogie boards, rope and a couple of foam noodles.
By this time, 2 others had arrived. We used a bucket to fill with ocean water and keep him wet while we made a dolly of sorts out of the foam noodles and boogie board. He still wasn’t budging. We would push with all our might and he’d move maybe a half-inch. He was about 20 feet from the ocean.
The empaths in the group were having a hard time witnessing his suffering.
We used the rope to wrap around his wet body and somehow got enough traction to move him about a foot. We repeated this process over and over and were making slow, painstaking progress.
As we worked, I was trying to stay mindful of my experience. I noticed my intense desire to relieve suffering but remained unattached to the outcome. I was at peace with the fact that the end result of all our efforts might be death.
I noticed love arising for big-hearted R who orchestrated this rescue with her cry for help. She whispered to him gently and kindly as we worked, and sent him blessings and love.
I noticed my aversion and anger towards the person not interested in helping us, who thought the fish should just be left to die. But of course he was entitled to his opinion and stance.
I heard myself saying, “He WILL swim again, and it will be today.”
Then someone in the group remembered that we had talked about setting intentions and manifesting. She yelled out in her most forceful and passionate voice:
“I call in the OCEAN to help!”
And this was from the least woo-woo person among us! I felt proud of our open minds and hearts and our collective effort.
M continued to call out: OCEANNNNNNN!
Within a minute, a large wave flooded the area, allowing us to push him a few feet. Miraculous! At this point we had been at this for about 45 minutes and hadn’t seen much wave action until now.
We were getting close and were growing more optimistic. A few more large waves crashed over us. With one last, mighty heave that sent R and I into the cold, February ocean, he was free.
We stood there shivering and wet, with tears streaming down our faces, our hands raw from the effort, not sure if he would survive or not, but knowing we did all we could to save him.
Although this was not the morning I had planned, it was a tremendous final exam of sorts; our very own Mindfulness Capstone project delivered with impeccable timing from Mother Nature herself.
- How would we bring everything we had been cultivating in the retreat out into the real world?
- What is our real work?
- How will we act when the chips are down?
- What is our purpose?
- When is action called for?
- How can we keep our inner peace and equanimity even in the face of adversity and suffering?
- What is the “right” thing to do?
Perhaps divine guidance is always there just waiting for us to ask for help.
And isn’t life just like that sometimes? You can strategize and plan your morning down to the minute and then you will suddenly and inexplicably find a giant, gasping, half-dead behemoth at your feet and you will have to decide what to do.
While you are trying to decide, you might be smacked by freezing waves. At the end of it all, you will be left shaken, bruised and trembling from the effort but deeply grateful because you will have had the privilege of embodying compassion and will have seen your efforts magnified through the compassionate acts of others.
You will get to learn that the universe is always there to support you if you just remember to ask.
And you just might have saved a life and isn’t that what this is all about anyway?
Even if the life you’re saving is really your own.
“Compassion is not just feeling with someone, but seeking to change the situation. Frequently people think compassion and love are merely sentimental. No! They are very demanding. If you are going to be compassionate, be prepared for action!”
~Desmond Tutu
Yours in compassionate action,
Erin
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“The universe is always there to support you if you just remember to ask.”
Mindfulness Magic and Re-Wilding Retreat
Sedona, AZ
May 14-21, 2016
While I can’t guarantee another final exam from Mother Nature, if you’d like to come on a mindfulness retreat with me in May, click here for more information. It is happening in Sedona, so the likelihood of magic occurring is high 🙂
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