Dolphins - Things We Learn While Traveling #5

A couple of years ago we did a Dolphin experience in Key Largo. Florida. The name of this place was Dolphins Plus. We didn't know much about dolphins so we took a class before we went into the water. They're really interesting creatures and quite extraordinary actually. I immediately connected with them and felt really good hanging out with them, talking to them, watching them swim around. They seemed to understand that some people were different than others because they avoided some of the people but were attracted to others. They explained that many people have a euphoric feeling while in the water with dolphins because of their sonar capabilities. They explained that the sonar waves tickle the nervous system in your spine. I don't really know much about this but you can certainly tell from our facial expressions in these photos that we were very euphoric.

After our experience I engaged a couple of the employees in some conversation and asked them some questions. I was quite taken by the level of appreciation and true affection that these employees had for the dolphins. I was really surprised by some of the answers that I received from them. I also learned a great life lesson from the dolphins. They feed the dolphins frozen fish but the dolphins really like live fish much better but this is not practical. The employees couldn't do anything about this but the dolphins could. When a frozen fish is thrown to a dolphin, they bite a piece of it off and carry it in their mouth the the fence that connects their pool with the sea water canal. They wait until they see a fish swimming by and they then spit out the piece of frozen fish and when another fish swims up to eat the piece of frozen fish, the dolphin sucks in the fresh fish.

What an amazing lesson! If life gives you something that you don't really care for, instead of simply disregarding that thing, use it. That unwanted thing may still have value, use it to get what you really want. As far as I can think, all of our other travel lessons have been from people, this is the only one that was provided by a non-human. What a truly great lesson though? Figure out the characteristics of something you have and trade it for something better. It's very difficult to think about my dolphin friends in Key Largo without smiling but I really appreciate the life lesson they taught me about settling for something less than what I really want.

Don't do it. Be as clever as a dolphin and go after your goals.