Colour is all around us . . . and if you go through life with open eyes you’d be surprised at what Nature has to offer. . . and this even in Grunge style!
Colour and Grunge
Colour and Grunge by Nature – or call it ‘camouflage’. . . this curious yet incredibly rapid lizard below can be found daily on his favourite rock in my garden – provided the sun is out! That’s what I call lifestyle!
Colour Harmonies
Looking at the Colour Harmonies this magnificent ‘Bearded Dragon’ displays, I feel like being transported back into prehistoric times when dinosaurs were roaming this planet!
Well, I am not yet 100% sure that it’s a “Bearded Dragon” as it’s not that easy to find and dig out the information online, however, it’s part of the lizard family and it certainly enjoys life as we all should… never mind the hawks and herons around!
Just look at a detail and you are in awe of the beauty of Creation…
I wish I could post more of them as it’s a symphony of colours in perfect harmony.
Having been immobilized and forced offline for a few days gave me a much needed rest and time to think and meditate on the many conclusive though disturbing occurrences that are surrounding us within a world of turmoil and… accelerating change.
It is my absolute conviction that the solutions we are all looking for on the ‘outside’ cannot be found but ‘within’ – within ourselves that is… within our thoughts and our dreams… and thus within our Vision or projection of the world we would like to see.
We are responsible.
With the way Knowledge spreads via the Internet we automatically become involved and are given the choice and opportunity to react – in one way or another. And this means we can either externalize it – or take the message in and change its vibration by our Thoughts, our Love. Peacefully… but with sharp intent. And we all have the capabilities to do this and thus actively contribute to our beautiful environment and especially, for Mother Nature. From within.
My articles on “Communicating with Dolphins” continue getting attention and comments… and with it came the mention of how military sonar systems and ultra-sound equipment disrupt the way sea mammals – who rely on their hearing of Sound for life’s most basic functions – such as orientation and communicating to find food and/or a mate, raising their young ones and protecting themselves from predators.
And just 20 minutes away from Kommetjie – whre those 55 whales beached a few weeks ago – is Simonstown, a naval military base… and there are rumours about foreign submarines in our waters (What nobody mentions HERE and the Facts HERE).
Sonars Harm Whales and Dolphins
How Sonar Harms Whales and Dolphins with Pierce Brosnan
We need the right Knowledge, Awareness and Compassion… and as a Movie is worth more than a 1000 words and who would not want to listen to a personality like Pierce Brosnan? – let me say it with pictures – just click on the Picture above and watch the 5 minute movie that is extremely eye-opening – and let’s never forget that we have the Power to Change . . .
My past articles on “Communicating with Dolphins” and especially the tragedy of the mass beaching of 55 whales at Kommetjie, South Africa, this past weekend… have attracted more response within a shorter time than any other post before – sometimes even from unexpected sources. Which leads me to believe that even in a business driven environment like the Internet people are inclined to react to what’s sincere, what really touches their heart and to what they are passionate about.
Swimming with Dolphins
Casey Porter from California wrote and made me smile: “Bianca, your article is just plain and pure and as a result my Chi automatically self relined itself. I loved this article and hope that one day I will get a chance to swim with these glorious creatures of the sea and thanks for writing such a beautiful story.”
Thank you Casey… I hope you will… and yes, what started as a simple story then was just the forerunner to much more to follow – about precognition and connectedness… and what touched me most was the image of the human families surrounding these dying creatures and connecting with them quietly in love, in prayer.
It’s all I could do for them myself.
Intuitive Communication
The story raised some very emotional and sensitive discussions as to what I touched on earlier: while everybody was focusing with best intentions on ‘helping’ these whales survive and get back into their natural element, the sea… did they ever ask the whales for permission? Whether that’s what THEY wanted? Whether that’s what was right for THEM? Or simply… WHY?
What did the whales want?
Maybe, they have a very different perception of Life and Death and the natural cycle of constant transformation… and the necessity to pass on at specific times to protect the whole… something I wrote about in my Book Review “Graceful Exits” not long ago.
Love, respect and intuitive communication between Man and Nature in any form are essential for living in Peace and Harmony with one another. I grew up with this form of interdependent understanding in Namibia; in my humble view it’s the one and only path to save our beautiful planet.
My inner question “What did the whales want..?” came back with a clear answer – as it always does when the question is asked with pure loving intent.
Communication with Animals
It put me in touch Anna Breytenbach, a well-known South African animal communicator. I invite you to get a feeling for who this powerful human being is, what she does and why… and how strong our synchronicities are… by watching this brief but insightful Interview that’s of value to everybody – just click on the picture below:
Living your Purpose
Anna gave up a successful business career in Silicon Valley to follow her intuition and… Passion. This is what Life is all about… to discover what drives you – meaning your REAL purpose – and then follow your Dream… while continuously expanding your Knowledge and your… Giving.
Here is what Anna Breytenbach wrote regarding the whale beaching in Kommetjie:
“I was deep in the Knysna forest tracking wild elephants when the whale tragedy at Kommetjie happened yesterday, so I rushed back to Cape Town today and have just finished a long afternoon/evening at the beach. This is a summary of what the pod of 55 whales conveyed to me after I connected with the group:
The majority of the whales were sick and dying… as a result of swimming in some sort of chemical effluent in the ocean, to the northwest of Cape waters. This invisible toxic stream affected them internally in such a way as to cause slow die-off. With that their immune systems also crashed, making them very susceptible to and ill from parasitic infections. A few of them were physically fine, having withstood this – but they weren’t going to leave their family members. So they swam ashore with the dying ones. One for all.
They beached because they wanted to die.
They chose the Cape beach so as not to have to navigate the stormy, rough seas around Cape Point in their weakened state, and because they want humans to witness (the) whales’ dying. On the bigger/planetary level too. They said “the Mother” (the ocean) is being poisoned, and so are they. It’s time humans woke up to this and witnessed the effects.
They predicted that there will be more strandings in the next moon cycle (which I found interesting given that the International Whaling Commission sits again in the last week of June apparently.)
The whales appreciate the compassion and care that people showed in trying to return them to the water, but would have wished to be given the choice, i.e. pointed out to sea/re-floated once, and then left to die in peace if and when they returned.
Humans holding vigil for them with understanding would have been far better than the forceful, violent means ultimately used.
Inbetween the above thought forms are the emotions and soulfulness of their consciousness that cannot be expressed in words by this mere human…
With honour and reverence for all whales,
Anna B”
Permission
Thank you Anna… and let’s learn from this that we should always ask for permission first – verbally or mentally… and wait for the answer. And then trust our intuition and accept and respect it.
On Thursday last week,something very strong inside kept me thinking about what’s always been very close to my heart… and then write an article about it: Communication with Dolphins.
Thursday was a stormy, cold and darkish winter day down here close to the famous ‘Cape of Storms’ at the tip of South Africa.
But there was something else. It was something I observed in the Atlantic Sea that I can see very well from where I am sitting at my PC, even right now. There was a whole array of abstract waves and splashes towards Kommetjie, slightly different in colour than the rest of the darkgrey waters on that day, often running crosswise against the huge surf rolling towards Noordhoek Beach… and topped by lots of foam. It did not look normal.
My gaze continuously wandered back… where it was banned to the same weird scenario. I mentioned it when we were preparing the Ycademy May 2009 Seminar. However, explaining something in optical terms – and especially while focusing on the complex matter under discussion -, excludes the extremely weird feeling that definitely went with this… and that compelled me later that day to dive into the spiritual waters where man and dolphins – or whales – merge. . .
Little did I know then of what was lying ahead…
Communicating on a Conscious Level
On Saturday, just before our Ycademy May 2009 Seminar was to start, friends summoned me to help at Kommetjie Beach where – at that time – 40 whales, many of them pregnant females and calves, had beached themselves. They were whales we don’t normally see here, not Southern Right nor Orcas…
First they were falsely identified as Pilot Whales… and finally correctly as false Killer Whales (Pseudorca crassidens), who are one of the larger members of the oceanic dolphin family (Delphinidae). They can become up to 6 metres long and weigh up to 3,5 tonnes. See the picture on Wikipedia to the left here!!!
40!
I was under shock!
This kind of mass beaching has never happened here before and noone was prepared nor equipped for it.
I had often had ‘live contact’ and what never failed to fascinate me was how fast, flexible and powerful these elegant navigators are. So why should they end up throwing themselves on Kommetjie beach?
One Mission
Whatever the reason, there was the Seminar and I could not leave… just connect on another level while seeing part of the beach at a distance and masses of people streaming there – to an extent that the law enforcement division had to close off the area to allow the dedicated South African rescue teams, National Sea Rescue Institute volunteers, veterinarians and marine scientists who came immediately and were united in ONE MISSION: to help these magnificent mammals survive and find their way back into freedom… in this case the rough and ice-cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
A difficult Mission under the circumstances.
We know too little about these giant mammals – why they put themselves into such a predicament, and how we should react to it. An example: to keep them simply alive, they need to be turned from one side to the other every 20 minutes to reduce pressure on their internal organs. And they need to be kept cool – which wasn’t a problem on that cold stormy day… And they need to be kept wet, i.e. hydrated – a task taken on by many dedicated helpers.
“Hundreds of people donned wetsuits and took to the water to encourage the whales back to sea. Some swam far out beyond the breakers with the whales only to watch the rescued creatures turning and riding the waves back to the shore or rocks, where they lay thrashing feebly.
A volunteer swam out with a little calf three times, but then it died. “I put my hand on its chest and could feel its heart beating so hard it felt like it wanted to jump out and then it stopped.”
No Time, Storms and a rough Sea
Lots of good ideas and plans – like taking the whales to a nearby naval base (Simonstown) and transporting them on boats to the deep sea or options including using a helicopter or navy landing craft or using tugs – had to be abandoned as Time and the extremely rough Sea were against them.
The condition of the whales deteriorated rapidly; they were suffocating fast and painfully under their own weight on the beach, their lungs collapsing… Humans kept them wet around the clock and earth-moving equipment was used to get these huge beings carefully back into their element, the sea. While these giant mammals are huge, they are also very delicate. If you get sand down their blowhole it’s like squirting water up your nose.
But that day the Sea was against them too. Despite the desperate and daring human efforts the giant mammals that could be returned back into the sea… beached themselves again, they just couldn’t – or wouldn’t – make it and over the day, their number grew to… 55.
And lastly: are we entitled to interfere and get them back into the sea – possibly against Nature?
Darlene Ketten, a neuroethologist and expert on hearing in marine mammals at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Cape Cod, Mass. said in an interview on the matter:
“If you have an animal and it is stranded and you insist on returning it to the sea, are you harming the population? If they are sick or diseased, what are we doing to that population pool? I’m not advocating that we don’t rehabilitate animals, if we can. We should understand causes of stranding, but we also have to accept the fact that strandings may be in many cases natural phenomenon.” [...]
What a tragedy!
Here are some direct impressions from Kommetjie… note the enormous breakers in the background…
I could not be there in person then but meanwhile I have met and spoken to those who were… and it’s easy imagining the drama that took its course with the realization that there was no way out for those peaceful creatures of the seas than a final exit as the most humane option to release them from their extreme pain.
“If you do get the animal to water and try to get it to swim off, and if it returns two or three times, the decision will have to be made that it is not going to survive and a veterinarian must euthanize it. Depending on how big the animal is, you cannot always use drugs in which case shooting is the best option.” [Darlene Ketten on the Kommetjie Stranding]
This is what happened then…
IMAGINE… a dark and storm-swept beach and – around each whale – a human family with many children, talking to each other, touching, communicating and… yes, praying together.
IMAGINE… a dedicated vet who I know well trying to administer a final dosis and realizing that what would kill an elephant “…just doesn’t work”. What a labour of love to take on! And what a terrible realization that there was only one solution…
And no silencers… And many people, parents and children, not ready to leave the whales.
It had to be done. There was not much time to manage or organize, the animals were suffering. And not only them.
IMAGINE… the emotions at the first shot. The chaos, the protest, the pain.
It had to be done. 40+ times. Until there was Peace.
BUT ALSO IMAGINE… these killer whales have a mouth filled with huge sharp teeth… and never within this entire tragic operation was there a bite, a hurt, any form of aggression. Never!
They knew!
Man and Nature met within the “Space of Trust” I so often write about… Clearly, here it was, including everybody involved. It was an experience on a very deep emotional level where Man and Nature are ONE… and once the pain, the anger and the frustration are over, the memory will manifest itself as a gift of Love for all.
The Message is within the Lesson
After some research on this phenomena I discovered that mass strandings of dolphins, whales and other marine mammals date back to the time of Aristotle. However, as the drastic pollution of our beautiful planet over the last 50 years has accelerated dramatically, not to speak of the water pollution, the noise of ships and submarines equipped with military sonar… and bearing in mind the extreme sensitivity of these extraordinary creatures that play such an important role within the ecology of our oceans, all this may have led to a rise of such terrible events.
These are assumptions though.
Nobody really knows why these strandings happen and whether it is a sign to worry about something specific besides the fact itself. Without being a specialist in the field, I believe it could have to do with their sophisticated sonar system that leads their path even if the path itself has changed – for instance, a coast line changes as a result of a tectonic shift.
A specialist from the University of Pretoria’s Mammal Research Unit explained that the stranding “…could have been a miscalculation of navigation or the dominant animal, usually a female, could have been sick”.
HOME Communication
The fact is that like us humans dolphins and whales are social creatures that have a sophisticated communication system. They travel together in groups. It appears that if one goes ashore, the rest follows – which can lead to mass strandings… as in Kommetjie.
Live together. Die together?
Let’s take the Lesson of this experience and … CHANGE!
Yes – we can… We are ONE world… and we want to leave it to our Children as a HOME to LIVE a Life in Joy!
In that sense, I am looking forward to the next movie of one of my favorite French directors, Luc Besson (Le grand Bleu) – called HOME – enjoy the trailer – take the Message, Live it:
If you don’t see the above video, click HERE.
Bianca Gubalke
How to create a healthy foundation for Communication
Speaking exclusively from my own perspective and experience, I firmly believe that what you live and experience as a child within Nature… or as a ‘Child of Nature’… ideally combined with your parents’ unconditional love – say until your 11th year of age – shapes your life, especially the Trust and Confidence you place in yourself and Life itself… Which are One.
As a child you do not yet have that feeling of ’separatedness’ that haunts most adults until the end of their lives. While you are on a curious and daring journey of self-discovery, it has much more to do with dreams and an excitement for the many wonders of Life and expanding those weird new limits you suddenly encounter – than egotism. Egotism is something that comes much later and that’s completely superficial in my eyes; it has nothing to do with a confident self-respecting person who has consciously developed strong character traits and… sticks to them.
Admiring the Wonders of Life
It’s during those early years that you connect to your Knowing within, that you get ‘grounded’ and that you understand yourself as a tiny part of a grandiose whole where everything that happens – however tragic or cruel – is just a phase, a challenge, a learning curve along the path: YOU will survive… just as the ocean’s waves resound with an eternal rhythm of ebb and flood… the sun is rising in the morning and setting at dusk… Yin and Yang.
Communication with Nature
The silent and subconscious Communication with Nature while we are still remembering the purest of states… while we are not yet influenced and relentlessly ’spoilt’ by ‘civilization’ and its many limitations, make us understand Life as a perfect circle of constant transformation, of coming and going… A balance we need to adapt to, align ourselves with and… flow.
Flow…
Communicating who we are
Whenever we’re ‘out of synch’… meaning not aligned… there’s dis-ease, there’s trouble and there’s pain and others will pick it up and react accordingly. Communication is a way of radiating, of touching the other on an immaterial level; the result is attraction or repulsion, instantly. Often it’s high time to get back to re-center and find that secret place of perfect harmony and balance within us from where our light can shine and merge with others… It’s there, always.
The question is how… how to re-connect? Perhaps start by asking yourself this…:
What is your Dream? What is your Purpose?
Noone else can tell you how and where to find it. You need to know – and you do. Always. And being honest and then working towards this important goal of realigning yourself with your life’s Purpose - never mind what it takes – is crucial, it’s extremely liberating… and it’s exciting!
What is your Dream… the path for you to find that inner balance… that childlike joy of being alive… again?
For some it may be visiting a place they fancy… or just going out and fish… or listening to music… or dance or taking the time to do something crazy they always wanted to do.
What is it you always wanted to do and that you keep ignoring instead of addressing it and… working towards its manifestation? There’s an important message within such a drive or wish or passion! And there’s lots of energy and joy… or a secret to reveal itself.
Maybe it needs going back in your past… back to when YOU were a child.
Swimming with Dolphins
Something I did as a child and that was nothing special at the time was swimming with wild dolphins. While we frolicked, dived and surfed in the waves of the Atlantic Ocean along Namibia’s coast they would just be there around us… like joining the Fun and, with hindsight and the knowledge I have today, our sacred guardians.
I know there was a time long ago when water was my element as well. I remember it. I can relive it at any time and it’s a sensation of ultimate bliss and happiness.
“All animals except man know that the ultimate of life is to enjoy it.” ~ Samuel Butler~
"Noordhoek Rocks" by Bianca Gubalke
Connecting on Noordhoek Beach
There were many ‘encounters’ in different areas of the world, and there was a very special one not too long ago when, during some of my darkest moments, I took refuge on the rocks in the sea down here below Chapman’s Peak.
Suddenly, they were there. About 30 of them – all around, circling, splashing and twirling… a divine expression of Life in all its Abundance and a reminder of our Strength within… simply by being… One.
There are many incredible stories about Dolphins… and besides, we can learn from them. . .
Dolphin Communication Behavior
Did you ever observe how you breath? Unless you do Yoga or Meditation, you probably never thought about it… it’s just something that happens… to you, right? Automatically… unconsciously.
And dolphins?
Not only can a dolphin shut down one half of the brain to rest… while being totally conscious with the other, dolphins are fully conscious of each breath they take… a highly advanced form of breathing referred to as “conscious connected breathing”.
Absolutely fascinating!
And talking of sensitivity… dolphins possess a highly specialized sonar which enables them to scan the human body (for instance that of a pregnant woman) and sense strong emotional states – as happened to many with personal bereavements and as was my case at the time. These and other advanced facts have made sonar experts gasp. Besides… and although I am completely against any form of enclosure or ‘prison’ for these free spirits of the seas, dolphins are increasingly ‘used’ to heal human beings – and with magnificent results.
Joy of Being - Dolphins
Reconnecting with Dolphins
A friend just returned from Mauritius and said: “I just lived your dream… and you were absolutely right: it was one of the most beautiful and intense… yet undescribable feelings of my life. You’ve got to go there. Don’t wait as long as I did.”
It was a birthday gift for her 70th birthday. . . and this formidable lady has travelled around the globe and seen the best places many times.
To me it was just another reminder… and I will go.
Just as YOU should follow this inner call and allow yourself to live Fulfillment, Happiness and… Peace. It will become part of you and the way you Communicate and… Give.
“Until he extends his circle of compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.”
~ Albert Schweitzer ~
Big cats – especially leopards – always fascinated me and we seem to have some kind of a strange attraction for one another. While it’s rather the exception to come across these beautiful and dangerous carnivors today, they were always around on the farm I grew up on in the Brandberg area of Namibia – South West Africa at the time. I remember how we had to always double-check the thick and solid wall of acacia thornbush – “hakkiedoring” – that enclosed the herd of goats at night. Leopards are elegant, noiseless hunters and smart strategists. One of them got all 5 of my little baby goats… and we never got him!
Even where I live today bordering on the unique Silvermine Nature Reserve there still seems to be one or the other big cat in the wild, steep gorge right above us in the isolated mountains. They seem to be invisible, but a neighbour heard one not too long ago and found the tracks… and after getting this weird feeling that made all my hair stand upright without any apparent reason while being up there in the complete stillness under sumptuous old Yellowwood trees… I never go up there alone again. I know he’s there. . . I love the thought as it means wholeness, connectedness and respect. Though I shouldn’t say ‘never’ perhaps . . . I might just go up again one day. . .
My most exciting encounters with lions and leopards I had many years ago in Botswana, especially in the Savuti Marsh, which is part of the Chobe National Park and was submerged under a huge inland sea in ancient times. For some mystical reason, this harsh area fills up with water becoming a lush grassland paradise for many different herds of animals and their predators – or it suddenly dries up under the scorching sun – regardless of the rains.
In the good old days we camped in the bush, carried no weapons, had a bushman tracker to guide us – and simply lived according to the simple rules of survival in the Bushveld based on constant awareness, stillness and respect. I especially loved the evenings when the sky darkened… with an incredible red of the setting sun hovering above the endless horizon… and the first star twinkling with surprising closeness…
The black silhouettes of camelthorn acacias into which swarms of birds settled noisily…
The tranquil passing of giraffes… elephants… herds of zebra, barking and stamping nervously…
And then… the distant roar of a lion echoing through the vastness like opening the hunt to the dancers of the night. Eyes soon flashed up in the flickering flames of the campfire: hyenas, jackals, lions… waiting.
The moment we disappeared in our tents the terrain was theirs!
Dereck and Beverly Joubert
During those precious times we always came across “the Jouberts”… sitting quietly in their specially equipped vehicle, observing, filming, taking pictures, writing, recording sound… and being just totally one with Nature: for over 25 years.
Dereck and Beverly Joubert dedicated their lives to studying and understanding the social structures and predator/prey relationships among Africa’s wild animals, recording and publishing it through various media channels with the objective to inform, stun and ultimately protect Africa’s majestic wildlife through wise conservation.
Their tremendous work – including 20 films, six books, and many articles for National Geographic magazine – has been honored with five Emmy awards, The Foster Peabody award, the Jules Verne award and, in 2008, the World Ecology Award, previously given to HRH The Prince of Wales, Jane Goodall, and Jacques Cousteau… among others.
Then and still today… they represented for me a form of perfect life: in harmony with Nature, doing what they love together as a bonded couple… and really creating something of Value – something that causes positive change.
If I’m on this kind or track in my online research, I easily get carried away…
So let me invite you to enjoy the following discovery: the Jouberts’ latest award-winning film “Eye of the Leopard”, which “… documents a young leopard’s survival in wild Africa over a period of three years and demonstrates the leopard species compassionate nature and advanced intelligence as well as its hunting prowess.”
As I mentioned before: it’s not easy to come across this species in wild Nature… watching these 4 short movies is incredibly enriching for anyone loving African Wildlife and… big cats.
Leopards.
"Eye of the Leopard" by Dereck and Beverly Joubert
This category will be a hymn to Nature in all its splendour, purity and beauty – and our Communication with it: how it inspires and feeds us on many different levels.
Each picture will capture a magic moment that moves us and triggers individual reactions and responses based on our past experience and environment.
Well, I am not yet 100% sure that it’s a “Bearded Dragon” as it’s not that easy to find and dig out the information online, however, it’s part of the lizard family and it certainly enjoys life as we all should… never mind the hawks and herons around!
Just look at a detail and you are in awe of the beauty of Creation…
I wish I could post more of them as it’s a symphony of colours in perfect harmony.
