Hear, See and Remember

It is sooooo surreal , I can barely find the words....



I got to the ocean early Monday morning, the air cool and crisp, the morning sun gleaming off the blue of the ocean. Because it was a Monday there was only one other car in the parking lot. I hurriedly tucked my camera into my bathing suit,quickly put on my mask, bit down on my snorkel and headed for the water.



My feet are truly only comfortable when I am on the sand but lingering on shore this morning was not in my mind. I could see the dolphins out in the deep water and I wanted to get into the ocean as quickly as possible.


There were waves breaking on shore, I carefully ducked under each one until "LALALALA!" I was out in the open ocean. I started calling underwater, thru my snorkel to the dolphins. "Dolphin... Dollll Phin.... DOOOOLLLL PHINNNN" I called for 15 minutes.. nothing. They stayed in the deep water, not the least bit interested in the human voice that called to them.



I have learned not to swim after the dolphins, I swim in the general area and I call. If they come I am delighted. Dolphins are beautiful no matter where they are,but in shallow water with the sun making stained glass patterns on their bodies , they are stunning!




I swam and I called, I swam and I called ... nothing.



Disappointed , I swam towards shore. "You crazy lady", I said to myself, "You are calling dolphins,How silly is THAT?"


I picked my stuff up off the beautiful sand and climbed up to a small cliff over looking the ocean. I was going to have to be content with watching the dolphins play from this perch on shore. It was enough. I love the ocean. I love the dolphins.




Sitting there I started to whistle, "wheewwww a whit" whewwwww a whit" short bursts of sound we all use to get the attention of a friend, animal or human. A small sailboat pulled up off shore in front of me, I watched it drop anchor it was beautiful.


What I did next I have no explanation for. I cupped my hands around my mouth and started calling in a sing song voice. " Dolphinnnnn.... dollllphinn", "Doooolllllphinnnnn". All of a sudden the two men on the sailboat in front of me dove into the water, swimming madly, furiously, directly towards me, and then it happened......



Glorious dolphins right beneath my ocean perch,in very very shallow water. They didn't stay, they swam right by me, one BIG dolphin surfacing,blowing air out( i love that sound) as if to say "WE'RE HERE"! So amazed I could do nothing more than raise my hands to the sky, throw my head back and laugh in pure joy.





The dolphins had swum in from the deep water, coming from my left, swam in front of me and continued off to the right, the two men from the sailboat? They continued swimming to the right following the dolphins , hoping to catch an up close glimpse of those magnificent animals.




I walked to my car in a fog. "Did this just really happen?"





I have spent the last 8 years, every free moment I have in the Ocean waiting for all too short swims the dolphins. In those couple of minutes with me on land and my dolphin friends in the ocean, in that brief moment every sore muscle, every lava rock cut, every sea urchin stab,every near death ocean experience i have had ... in that moment every memory of those was gone.



They are NOT just fish... they possess an intelligence we as human will probably never understand.....they hear us, they see us, they remember us.





I am an island gal..........