This photo was taken when we were living in America.
It’s a photo of my daughter on a ferry to Orcas island.
It has been shot on a day that taught me a lesson by what I can only call divine perfection, and today I am going to tell you that story.
We were going for a weekend away. As usual for me a the time I was stressed for work stuff, and for some other comment thread that had started turning into a flame on some guy’s blog. I can’t even recall what the blog was about, and in fact it does not matter, but just to say that – albeit I was not aware of it at the time, I have only understood this by re-playing the story in my head and analyzing it later – I was also influenced by the emotions associated with that online interaction.
We left home in time but we got some traffic on the road, and we missed the ferry we intended to take by something like 5 minutes. We literally saw it leaving.
There was another ferry, but that would only leave three hours later!
I was mad.
I was mentally and physically tired, I started worrying that, once on the island, it would become late and I would have to drive on muddy unknown roads till late to find the place where we had booked a cabin in the woods; a place we had never before been to. I spent too much time in front of screens, and my eyes were often tired at the time, which gave me head aches, and I hated the idea of having to search in the dark in those conditions…
Probably I was also having a sugar shortage, but at the ferry waiting line there was nothing to eat, and nothing much around for a few miles – besides I was not going to get back out of the line and risk missing another ferry!
…and it was so that I spiraled down into these negative thoughts, and I turned grumpy and not nice to be around.
My wife and kids walked out of the car, leaving me space and giving themselves freedom from seeing my grumpy attitude. They had fun, I stayed in my boiling broth, continuing to beat myself and others up on email threads, blogs and about how the world was not fair…
Eventually the three hours passed, the next ferry came, and we got on. As soon as we could, we stepped out of the car and walked inside of the ferry. My daughter was very excited as you can see in the picture. I was sitting by the window in front of her, a table in between us, in one of the passenger’s booths on the side of the ship. I was still grumpy and tired, and my wife and kids decided to walk around on the ferry to see what was there to eat, drink, or see. They probably also went to the restrooms, and so forth, while I remained at that booth.
As I was very tired, when looking at the sea that surrounded me, I was drifting in day dreaming, or maybe I even actually slept a few short minutes. I felt, or dreamed, of big sea animals. At first I thought dolphins, but then they appeared as Orca‘s, as if I was also underwater and they were swimming towards me.
The atmosphere was magical. I was not afraid, I felt honored to be visited. They told me something mentally that I could not rationally understand, but made me feel secure and protected.
I opened my eyes and was still looking at the sea – my rational mind was starting to interfere and kicked me out of the vision I was having: it disconnected the phone call I was having with the Orca’s and my ego started making me think it was ‘just’ a dream… then I heard some people talking louder, further away from me, and a bunch of people rushing from inside the ferry on the outside brigde, and I heard my wife’s voice – she was coming towards me and she said: “They saw a group of Orca’s swimming by the ship in that direction” and she was pointing at where all the other people had gone. I replied: “I know. Sort of. I think I was talking to them.”.
I don’t think she understood, as I mumbled this. The moment was one of those ‘act now’ where you had to go out on the bridge if you actually wanted to see them – some people hurried taking photographs, etc. At that point the ship’s captain also officially announced something thru he speakers about the Orcas being visible, and attracted the rest of the people.
My wife and kids did go to see them outside on the bridge – and they did see them! I am so glad my kids had such rare opportunity to see wildlife from so close, as that is not common here that we are back in Europe!
Anyway, back to the story, I stayed by the booth: I didn’t want to start struggling with the other photographers, I didn’t need to physically see them, as I had just had a much more profound spiritual experience with them!
Those Orca’s, this memory, will always stay with me.
It was the reason why we missed the first boat: the universe had been bending time in our favor to make this connection happen! Had we been on the earlier ferry, we most likely would not have seen them (the ship’s crew told us that while it can happen to meet them every now and then, that was really rare in that period of the year)!
It was the teaching that while you might feel most tired, and at the point of despair, in certain points and situations of your life, there is always something to be learned, to experience, to enjoy, even in those moments.
And divine guidance – mother nature’s guidance – is there, always, but we forget it while we are too busy behind our screens with our petty topics, ego battles and intellectual debates!
On the ferry my smart phone could not connect, and that forced me to unplug from email and internet – as I was really internet and email addicted at the time! – and water (my element, I am a Pisces) was obviously what I needed to snap out of my misery.
Once on the island, albeit it was getting dark, we did reach our destination without much trouble. We had a great time that weekend and I was pushed very much out of my comfort zone – something I needed badly – as there was no Internet connection, and we even bathed in an open air hot tub in the middle of the forest (this might sound normal, but I have had traumatic experiences with swimming pools as a kid, and to this day I still feel great discomfort when I am around those places: I tolerate open air pools but the roofed ones are a ‘no no’ for me…).
So, this was the story of that magical, mystical experience.
Yesterday I was trying to do something but it didn’t work out as well, and I was falling into the victim role.
This story came to the rescue from my memories, as unforgettable reminder that when things seem bad, we often make them bigger in our heads, and that a turn of favorable events is just around the corner!
I hope the reminder is useful to you, too – on this day, and onward!
Namaste,
Daniele
