A Cruise To Remember

Sitting on the balcony outside our cabin on a cruise ship, all I could see was water and sky. It was somehow starkly beautiful. Yet, there was something missing. It was quiet. I could hear the sound of water as the ship moved on the ocean…and at times the distant sound of people. After a while of sitting, mesmerized by the sea, I realized that except for the human-made noises, I heard no other sounds of life. Intellectually, I know that the ocean is full of marine life…but sitting on the ship, there where no sights or sounds to confirm that knowledge.Cindy and I went on a cruise this fall to relax and enjoy ourselves…a vacation we looked forward to for months. It truly was a cruise to remember. Even more memorable was participating in a conference while on board. The Sea Angels Cruise and Inner Wellness Conference is a cruise we highly recommend. We went as part of the conference to learn some new things and to teach a couple of classes. Both were related to our business Animal Communication and Wellness Services…we taught one on Animal Communication and the other on Animal Wellness.So, maybe you are thinking “how did they teach a class on communicating with animals when there weren’t any there?” Communication occurs on many levels. And communication with animals doesn’t need to be face to face. We asked the students to bring a picture of their own animals. We brought along pictures of all of our animals too, just in case. Cindy and I believe in an interactive teaching style, so the class wasn’t all lecture. It included exercises and discussion. The looks on the student’s faces as they talked to the animals reinforced for us why we do animal communication…to enhance the communication between people and their animals. I can still hear one of the students saying “I can’t believe I can do this…but he (a classmate) got the same thing too!”So, here we were on board ship with no animals in sight. As I sat on the balcony, I realized again how important animals are in my life. Not only the pets in our household, but the birds and the frogs and the deer and even the insects. They fill our world and add so much…even when we aren’t paying attention. Whenever we are away from home, we “check-in” daily with each of our animals. It is like using the telephone to check on a loved one, but without using the phone. It helped all of us not to miss each other so much. Of course our horse Rusty thought it was pretty silly to be out where there wasn’t any pasture to walk on. We had to explain that people like to go on a ship on the ocean to relax and have fun. He finally said he understood when we said that we went for the food (You never go hungry on a cruise!) but he still thought it silly.We did get to see some of the ocean life while snorkeling in Grand Cayman…it was fun to call fish and to ask them about the area they live in and what they do. We got to “share life energy” with the mosquitoes in Muyil, Mexico while seeing ancient Mayan ruins. One of the most fun experiences occurred on the last night of the cruise. Cindy was standing on the balcony watching some of the birds that we had started to see as we passed Cuba on the way back to Florida. She asked if “any of the birds wanted to talk with her?” Suddenly, she jumped back as a small stocky white bird with black feathers on top of its head and a short beak landed on the balcony floor. The bird said he didn’t have anything particular to say. He was intrigued that she’d asked so he thought he’d check things out. After a few minutes, he walked under the partition to the next balcony. We found out later that he walked toward the back of the ship going under the balcony partitions…because he also visited our friends who were several cabins away on the same level. It is experiences like these that keep us communicating with animals.While we enjoyed the cruise, and look forward to another next year, the time spent without seeing and hearing animal life all around has made me appreciate my life here in the Ohio valley even more. I am more aware of the cycle of the seasons as late fall and winter approach. And I thank all of the animal life here for what they bring to all of our lives. May we all have a wonderful holiday season.